I mean I think students are happy I think yes today I can follow it's for being your iPhone it's I think it's not fine.

Yeah, it's just a little bit like problem right now but yeah yeah I mean oh wait so Jenna is camping and back that chilly one of our co-op years is looking to quote yeah we love the travel economist we need things so thank you that's hard it feels very hard spending very small and send my bedroom welcome everyone why don't we go ahead and get started um welcome to the March 10th 2026 meeting from the bicycle the depth screen advisory meeting I believe we have everyone here on the committee to attend in person is great but thanks for being here and welcome to guests that are joining us um our first uh order of business is approval the minutes from the February 10th 2026 meeting they would be looking for a motion to approve those minutes oh wait motion to approve motion by andrewesome second by rocky any correction the minutes as presented not seeing any all those in favor of approving the minutes say aye aye any opposed okay those are approved with our agenda is rather short because I want to allow a fair amount of time for first agenda item which is 44-1118 discussion on electric footers electric bicycle ordinance and we have uh attorney alan atterbury here who has been working diligently for I don't know how many untold hours on this um at our last meeting it was requested that people bring forward any suggestions to Ellen as to potential changes in the ordinance as it's gone through its evolution we have gotten definitely a few of those but some that I'm aware of perhaps others that all is aware of that I did not see and um I guess Ellen before we actually start you going through this if I I think I'll request a couple of the people that are here in attendance to provide some of the information they have which I believe you had gotten as well absolutely any committee member who emailed me I definitely got that feedback and I think responded to everyone save Andrew's email this morning short answer is yes we can get into that in a bit we read up this morning um bridget had sent an email out with some concerns about getting access on on sidewalks for electric bikes and scooters so Bridget would you like to just do a short synopsis on what you were yeah concerns are sure um 25 miles per hour um is often a concept and but not reality on a lot of streets in the cross um

Bridget had sent an email out with some concerns about getting access on sidewalks or electric bikes and scooters.

So Bridget, would you like to just give a short synopsis on what you were concerned about?

Sure.

Um 25 miles per hour.

Um is often a concept and but not reality on a lot of streets in lacrosse um that check rooms call it strodes, or somewhere between streets and roads, and I don't think it's really fair to expect uh people on various forms of microbiality to mix it up with large car truck drivers, um, just because a speed limit's posted.

It's it's unrealistic to expect people to uh uh share the share the line with them and it's would also be unfair that I expect people to dismount block if they're doing it.

I mean these materials uh are not talkable, they're not only to pedestrians and any in some of these spaces, and I'm thinking Oakland Avenue.

I spent some and there's a cafe uh struggle.

Um watching people on various forms of choosing to be in the street, and they didn't seem to have issues.

I didn't see any close calls with pedestrians in part because it's often so paved over that they can work around them, and I think people just sort of self least if there was a pedestrian nearby, like for the bridge there.

That's kind of thoughts, and I also think that these scooters are going to um they're a form of transportation that people um are going to be choosing, especially as the cost of cars and driving goes up.

It's not just they're also not discreet.

Um access if people need to get there.

I also saw somebody um take the like president bus into lacrosse with and with a scooter equator.

Snip down the alley to wherever they were going.

I think that that is another option that people will likely continue to choose.

I don't think they should be penalized for it.

I mean, it's a uh economical and sustainable transportation.

Thank you, Bridget.

Any questions for Bridget before we move on?

James Longhurst.

Um yes, welcome, James provided uh uh a lengthy um description of some of his concerns moving forward.

Sure, I wrote in response to the the prior um draft.

So the the March draft which we have in front of us now has been substantially changed um since um that February draft.

Um so I guess I could um make some comments about the March draft that's in front of us now, and and say um, you know, thank you for the um attention and revisions to the previous draft.

I still have um some concerns, and they're they're in sort of two categories, and one is functional, and the second is sort of purposeful or strategic or ideological anyway thing that but the functionally I I still have some concerns about this March draft about it actually working as a matter of law, and that mostly has to do with the problem that we don't have good legal definitions of what is a sidewalk and what is not, and what is um a trail or a paid shared use trail or something like that, and so it becomes either extremely difficult or actually functionally impossible to make subcategories of some sidewalks where um e-scooters are banned and then some sidewalks where they're permissible, and it's either functionally doesn't work in terms of describing reality, or then I have some concerns about if we start making really pretty complex lists of places where um things are prohibited and exempt, then it's actually very difficult for both the public and law enforcement to keep those lists straight.

And so I think the March draft does a better job at that, but then the March draft has a new category of sidewalk um where e-scooters would be permitted, and that new category is alongside roads that are greater than 25 miles per hour, and then also that there are no bike lanes or bike facilities.

And so that's that's a new category of sidewalk that doesn't exist elsewhere in municipal ordinance.

And I think that's that's a good attempt, but it still functionally um leaves out a lot of places where e-scooters might be used as transportation in city limits, but that they would want to get out of the way of too fast um volumes of traffic, and that includes essentially all bridges and overpasses in city limits.

So think of state road um east of uh uh central high school.

Um that's an overpass over rail, and it's 25 miles an hour, but that's fast moving traffic, high volume, low visibility, and there's you know four inch gaps between the concrete pads, and so these scooters could not functionally share that road with moving traffic.

Um, but that's 25 miles an hour.

So under that, they would be required to not be on the sidewalk.

And so that overpass and then bridge overlook cross river on highway 35, Rose and Copeland overpasses.

Um then we fall into, and so that is I'm not too functional, and then we fall into some problems where I'm not certain what are paved shared use trails outside of parks because we don't have that definition of paid shared use trail doesn't exist outside of parks, and in the March draft, um we've actually got that as a separate designation.

The new 44199 electric scooters B where prohibited it shall be unlawful for any person to operate right an electric scooter in any of the following places on any roadway with a speed limit in excess of 25 miles per hour, except in designated bike lanes or designated paved shared use paths.

That that category doesn't exist either in our ordinance, and if we're thinking about it as like designated means signed, there's some places where that's signed as this is a shared use path in in the city, and then some places where it's not.

So I'm not certain what sometimes uh there's signage on like Bud Hendrickson Trail and Pamel Creek, but then there's not in other locations.

So designating paired paved shared use path, I'm not certain that that exists.

So I don't think that that works functionally, and then sort of transitioning to ideologically.

I still have I have some concerns that the purpose of this um committee or what I I think of it certainly um is being circumvented here by a piece of legislation that works to limit transportation modes and the freedom to choose ways of getting around the city in the name of safety, but I don't know that we have data that demonstrates that these modes are less safe than existing.

So I you know, I can I can spend some time tweaking and and improving language on this March draft.

I also don't know if you know, I polish to the point where I'm saying, oh, this will functionally work that I would really want this thing to be something that comes out of this commitment.

I had I have some additional minor language um to uh to pay attention to, but I I think that that's more wordsmithing than anything else.

Um to uh to pay attention to, but I I think that that's more wordsmithing than anything else.

Thanks, James.

Questions for James.

Andrew, you have a last minute submission, or do you like it?

Well, it was more of a I followed up last minute.

My original email was I think very reasonable.

Uh I think it was like a couple of days after that.

Um yeah, I mean, my uh I wanted to change the rather than saying the reasonable movement of motor vehicle traffic.

I think I wanted it to be the traveling public, but it seems like traffic.

I think trapping is the best word for either.

Um I had suggested that perhaps you could allow for e-scooters and e-bikes to use sidewalks using the same rule as bikes, and having that same language that it shall be lawful to operate on sidewalk, provided that they use raceful speed, deal with pedestrians, and if unable to pass in the same manner, the operator shall have dismount.

Um, and then I made a suggestion.

This is where I had my last minute follow-up.

Um could you um could you dictate where you could use sidewalks based on road classifications that the engineering department or board public works is.