COTI'S POSITION ON CLASS 2 E-BIKES ON THE SHARED-USE PATHS
Letter & Documents to Sanibel City Council from COTI President Bill Millar
September 6, 2024
On May 31, 2024, I shared with you COTI’s position opposing Class 2 e-bikes on Sanibel’s Shared Use Paths (SUP), citing safety concerns of speed and the weight of bikes. Since then, COTI surveyed its members. Members agree that the risks are too great. The survey sought opinions on various SUP use issues. Today the COTI board formally adopted the e-bike SUP policy position developed by COTI’s SUP Subcommittee, which I shared with you at that time (copy attached).
I am writing to you now to transmit the results of COTI’s SUP survey that we hope will be helpful as the City Council considers the second reading of its SUP ordinance at its September 9 meeting.
The survey was returned by 140 people over 98% of whom are Sanibel residents. While questions were asked to elicit responses to several policy areas, the questions related to the safe operation of the SUP had the strongest response.
- Only 14.4% of respondents supported allowing Class 2 e-bikes on the SUP.
- Speed limits were supported by 69.3% while differential speed limits were split 44.3% for and 40.7% against.
- Safe operation of the SUP is a high priority of the respondents with questions relating to safety garnering 61.3% to 92.1% positive responses.
Full results of the survey including the wording of the questions asked and the responses to an open-ended question are attached for your information.
Thank you for your consideration of our views.
E-bikes - 2024 Survey ResponseE-bike position paper 9-2024