October 16, 2026

Machine-generated transcript — may contain errors.

Thank you. Good afternoon. It is Friday, October 16th. We're here for our discussion session and the topic today is electric bicycles and motorized devices.

And I'll turn it over to our Assistant City Manager, Myron Burr, to present. Thank you, Mayor. Jeff DeVores from the Police Department is actually going to start the presentation today. He's just going to talk a little bit about enforcement before we dive into the presentation.

Hello, I'm Lieutenant Devorce from the Clayton Police Department. I appreciate you guys letting me be here today. Obviously, we're talking about e-bikes. From the police standpoint, we have heard some complaints from Parks Department residents, community members, both in our own interactions with them at community events.

So some of the complaints that we're hearing, safety concerns is how fast these bikes are, especially in pedestrian areas, the safety concerns that they pose. So when we considered what it would look like for us in terms of an enforcement plan, Our approach, we wanted to consider it being kind of starting off with education and getting parental involvement and having more of a progressive accountability rather than coming off with a really heavy hand to start with. Of course, there might be situations or circumstances where we have to be a little heavy handed right off the bat. But in general, our enforcement plan, we would want to be more focused educational, and communicative.

And how we kind of did that is putting it into kind of a category of steps, right? First step, education, communication. That could be things with our socials, putting timely reminders, education out on our socials, really partnering with the school district and our SROs to educate our students on proper e-bike use and safety. I know Clayton Connections putting timely information out in the newsletters to the citizens, things of that nature.

When it gets to when violations occur, One of the steps that we would want to use first off initially is verbal warnings. And with that, document those verbal warnings. We have a system called a FIR, a Field Investigative Report. This is what we use for situations like trespassing.

If we get called for trespassing and we wanna document that this individual has been trespassed from this location, we put their information into a FIR. field investigative report. We have the ability to do that with juveniles, too. We just have to change it to juvenile, so there's a little bit more restrictions for the juveniles.

But we would utilize that to be able to document who we spoke to, so we can also track if this is a habitual problem with this particular individual, so that we can then begin with progressive enforcement matters. And Along with the initial warnings, we want to get parents involved, talk to the parents. This is kind of something that we've done historically with minor violations like trespassing for juveniles at the pool. If they go off the fence after hours, we typically try to contact the parents by phone to come pick them up and let them know, hey, this is what happened.

We've done that for Curfew violations with juveniles that are out past curfew. Fireworks, if we catch juveniles with fireworks, same kind of thing. That's what we're looking at in terms of e-bike violations. Obviously, there are situations where there's going to be repeat offenders involved.

And so for continued or repeated violations, we would want to consider some alternative methods of enforcement, which could include citations when it's legally applicable, temporarily impounding the e-bikes. I know in our ordinances now, I believe with regular bicycles, we can impound those up to five days. There are other cities like Brentwood, Creve Coeur that have established e-bike ordinances and they do the same thing. They have the ability to impound an e-bike up to five days if they choose.

So that's something that we've considered having for a progressive type of accountability. Also in terms of juveniles, you know, under the age of 17 in some circumstances, we may need to refer them to the juvenile court system because they're going to have jurisdiction. Although when we're talking about like traffic law violations, we still in the municipal court would have jurisdiction with juveniles 15 and older, I believe. So those are some of the repeat of, enforcement that we'd want to use for repeat offenders.

And so really, like I said, the overall desire, the goal from the police standpoint is we want to be able to have an ordinance that we can enforce but not make it to where we're maybe unnecessarily criminalizing juvenile behavior right away, but still having it in place where if need be, we can utilize it to enforce those violations when there's repeat offenders and continued problems with individuals that are using the e-bikes. So with that, I'll let Myron continue with the presentation. Thank you, Jeff. So I've crafted a presentation, got a draft of a policy that's at the dais for you to kind of review.

And in drafting the policy, we wanted to make sure that safety was our paramount, safety of our pedestrians, our riders, and then enforcement that we could stand behind. Get this screen out of the way here. The policy, what I just said, what we're thinking about pedestrians, riders and enforcement, prevent close passes and collisions on our sidewalks, passing at crossings, make it easy to tell an e-bike from a scooter, moped or motorcycle. And they give officers a consistent way to warn, contact a guardian and resolve unsafe use.

So a lot of the enforcement here is really aimed at juveniles, folks under 18. That's where a lot of this response is coming from. So Missouri law outlines what is an e-bike and the easiest way to tell what an e-bike is. If it has pedals and the motor is under 750 watts, it's an e-bike.

Anything that does not meet that qualification is more than likely a e-motorcycle and you would need insurance, registration, a driver's license. It's a motor vehicle at that point. So there's three different classes of e-bikes. Your class one, class two, both of those cut off at 20 miles an hour.

And then your Class 3, which cuts off at 28 miles per hour, and you have to be 16 years or older to ride that. Is that 28 miles per hour related to the 750 watts? Or is it? Or how would it?

Do you know? Like, it's still an e-bike at the Class 3? If it goes above 28 miles per hour. It would not be an e-bike.

Okay. But if it's 29 miles per hour, it would not be classified as an e-bike. And we don't necessarily know if that correlates to the wattage of the motor. I would probably say yes.

It seems like it probably does. Okay. Thanks. Myron, if you could just repeat.

And then the ones, though, that don't have pedals, those would automatically be considered like e-motorcycles? More than likely, yes, ma'am. Okay. Because, yes, I mean, I know all of us have seen.

So those really would not... they wouldn't fall under any of these because they're considered e-motorcycles and they should not be, they should only be used. And like you said, insured and you have to have a driver's license and titled registered title. Got it.

Okay. Thank you. Is there a preferred or like what to call that thing? Like, is it, a moped or a motorbike or a motorcycle or is that language all kind of vague?

It is e-motorcycle. Okay. Thanks. And then these are just different types of separate vehicles.

So we have the e-bike, we have the electric scooter. Local definitions may vary. And then you have that e-motorcycle, which is the high power device we were just discussing. Then you do have like your moped and scooter, which we do have defined currently in our code.

Chapter 365 does define what that is. Two to three wheels, under 50 cc, three brake horsepower, and it goes under 30 miles per hour. So what's the street license? Yeah, the driver's license.

So right now, our code doesn't cover e-bikes. Bicycle is defined as human powered. We do have motorized bicycles, which would be those mopeds and those scooters, kind of what we're talking about. We do have bike equipment and roadway rules that are present in our current code as it sits right now.

We also have helmet rules. Chapter also lists out Violations or fine violations for persons under 17, those would go to the parent. It also gives our police in-pound jurisdiction up for up to five days. So right now in our local definition, there is no e-bike by class, no sidewalk restrictions, no share pad rules or any of that.

So it's just absent. We don't cover e-bikes currently in our code. Missouri law does provide the starting rules. It defines to us what e-bikes are, and typically e-bike riders have the same rights and duties as bicycle riders.

They have to follow traffic laws. Qualifying e-bikes do not need license, title, registration, insurance, etc. Minimum operator age for Class 3 is 16, and those bikes do have to have a speedometer to show how fast they're going. Working brakes and specified lights, reflectors at night, and the manufacturer label has to stay with the bike.

Class 1 and 2 access generally allowed wherever traditional bicycles are permitted. Class 3... is only in the streets typically. And then non-motorized trails are, they're typically banned on non-motorised trails.

And then we talked earlier about the out of class devices. So those that don't have pedals or go faster than 28 miles per hour. This is what some nearby municipalities are offering. Brentwood, Creve Coeur, Town & Country, and Richmond Heights.

Typically, Class 1 and 2 are allowed on shared paths and sidewalks. Class 3 is prohibited in most places on sidewalks. Most cities have a helmet rule and some sort of enforcement that can lead up to impoundment or apparent citations. So the draft policy in front of you, I really just wanted to take what we heard at our last conversation and kind of put it in an enforceable policy.

We would keep class one and two on the sidewalks. They'd have to yield. They have to give audible signals before passing, slow to walking speed around pedestrians. If they are in a crowded area or safe passage is not possible, ask the riders to dismount.

And those class three e-bikes would be restricted from the sidewalks or shared use paths. not on the screen, but in our draft policy, we would have the option to restrict certain sidewalks for class one and two. So like in our central business district or other commercial areas, if you read the policy right now, it just says exhibit A. I intentionally left it blank because you might have other commercial areas other than downtown that you would want to restrict paths.

So that would be beneficial for us to hear during this discussion today. And then this is just what it is. These are currently in our code as it is right now. You have to have a helmet outside of the e-bike specific things, but you have to have a requirement required to be properly fitted, fastened for anyone under 17.

There are fines attached to that if an officer does stop you. Class three operator must be 16 or older and the e-bike must show speed. That's that speedometer. All e-bikes have to maintain proper equipment.

You can't ride with a passenger unless the bike is designed for one. And you have to follow all the rules of the road. So stop at signals, use your hand signals. I don't know how many people are currently doing that on bicycles, but you should be following the rules of the roads.

Sorry, can I ask a quick question? I have two questions. One is just for clarification. I had in my mind that our policy was helmets 14 and under, but this says 17 and under.

Okay, great. And is there a reason that we're not encouraging like bike paths where available or like encouraging people to ride on the street? But they're allowed on the sidewalk? Is there a way, like...

E-bikes are just in general. In general, I think? So there are no sidewalk prohibitions in general for bicycles. Right.

Which... Okay. So I don't... I didn't answer your question there.

Do you understand what I'm asking? Yeah. No, I mean, I hear what you're saying. Like, is there a way to put in our policy to encourage bicycles to use the street where there might be a, you know...

Because the way that it's written right now, it seems like we prefer to you to ride your bike on the sidewalk is how I read that. And I would prefer any wheeled vehicle on there. instrument on the street. Right, mode of transportation to be on the street.

The code does reference, tells bikes to use the right side of the road and there gives instructions for how to ride your bicycle currently, but it does not explicitly say you cannot ride on the sidewalk or you can ride on the sidewalk. It just says we prefer you to use the right side of the road. There's no shoulder there or the designated bike lane. And, you know, you can ride two next to each other unless you're slowing traffic.

We're not encouraging sidewalk. We're just not prohibiting sidewalk use. You know, and I think that that might be appropriate in Clayton until we have better bike paths because I will be riding my bike somewhere. And if there's nobody on that sidewalk and there's traffic, especially in this area, I will cut up on that sidewalk and then cut back down.

If somebody comes down the sidewalk or whatever, I don't know that it's been a problem in the past with bicycles on the sidewalks. If somebody else has different experience, say so. And I think that where there are bike lanes, it says on here shared paths. A bike lane is a bike lane, right?

So the one, two, and three could all use the same. Shared path would be like you're biking in Shaw Park or Oklahoma. Okay, got it. Good.

So bike lanes are for any of these bikes. We currently have a discouraging sidewalk, not encouraging sidewalks or whatever. But not prohibiting it. Not prohibiting it.

Right. I mean, have you seen there? But go back to the next, the previous slide. I think one of the things like what I think I like, I kind of got the sense that you did, Betsy.

I have the idea in my head from like my bicycle education that bikes are not supposed to ride on the sidewalks. So I understand we don't actually prohibit that in the ordinances. And I understand there are reasons that people do it sometimes or like allow or encourage their kids to do it while they're learning and things like that. To me, it feels like it might be something that's like the language we use in the ordinance and that we, like, I don't think I would want to prohibit the, at least the I forget the difference between one and two, I guess.

Are one and two both E? You don't need to pet. Yeah. So I guess in both cases, like if you can go up to 20 miles an hour, I'm almost thinking like regular bikes.

How fast do regular bikes go? 12? I mean, depends on the rider, but like. Pass, I guess.

Yeah. You mean like a non-e-bike? Yeah. Like a regular bike rider is typically like 20 miles an hour.

Yeah. Yeah. Hmm. Yeah.

Typically. Yeah. 12 to 15, eight or 10. Yeah.

Right. Like anyways, I think what I'm thinking is regardless of exactly where we draw that line in the ordinances, I would want like our education and communication on it to talk about like the reasons it's safe to be in the street or should be, or like where, depending on the different places. Right. um because i don't know if you have any bike and how fast you're going but like 20 miles an hour is fast to like come up on a pedestrian yeah so um it seems to me so we do have restrictions in the code right now for like skateboards and inline skates and roller skates as well but they can't be on the sidewalk there are certain areas where they cannot be on the sidewalk Now that I know is fishy.

Yeah, I mean, that is interesting, right? Why would we allow? I don't know. I think that's which the draft policy in front of you.

I did borrow from Section 310 and say, like, if you have an e-bike, you can't be especially in our central business district. You can't be on the sidewalks. And there's probably other commercial areas, especially and I probably stole yours. So I've got extras over here.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I could see in the high point neighborhood that you probably would not want e-bikes on the sidewalk. So that is something that we could add.

I don't want to get too granular, but I just am thinking like if we're promoting this and we're writing this new ordinance and we're talking about it and it specifically says there was one slide. I don't know if it was this one or the next one or somewhere. I just you're going so fast. Yes.

Like that it just talks about, oh, proposed access class one and two sidewalks and paths subject to pedestrian priority. So it doesn't even say roadway or, you know, it seems like those are the only places you're allowed to ride. Does that make sense? I get what you're saying.

Okay. So when we draft the language. maybe I'm just making too much out of it, but that's kind of what I saw. And I just want to make sure that people know that the preference one that, you know, especially like I'm thinking of going to school or whatever, like you should ride in the street.

It's like the context, like if class one and two said roadway designated bike lanes and sidewalks and paths subject to pedestrian priority, then just even that would like point out that like it's allowed to to be on the sidewalk but these others are listed first my apologies for not saying no big draft policy beforehand but it does read an electric bicycle may be operated on streets bicycle lanes and bicycle or multi-use paths were permitted subject to traffic controls posted restrictions so like it would say that and then it talks about sidewalk restrictions in the subsection b okay let me ask you thank you okay that makes sense um E-bikes, Class 3 e-bikes cannot use our parks? Is that what that's pretty much saying? Yes. We wouldn't want 28 miles an hour in Shaw Park or Oak Knoll.

I don't know that they actually... Okay. They have the capacity of doing that. I think a lot of people ride them and they don't do that.

I have not seen... Like you might have a Class 3 e-bike, but you're not... Right. You're going 15 miles an hour.

Right. I don't see... I haven't... In my limited experience, I have not seen them going that fast.

And I don't know that you want to limit people using our parks, if that could be a... You know, this is anecdotal, but... Yeah, yeah. I would hesitate at that, yes?

Yeah. Well, and a lot of this is getting at, like, how much is it the... vehicle itself versus the way it's being used and all of that. I would agree with that.

Bicycles can go streaming down those park paths. Yes, and we have had bicycles go that fast. So I would say, yes, there are some kids who are going that fast through not only the park, but off the trail in the grass on the GRG. I was leaving work one day last week and saw somebody flying by the Barton They went back by the Barton's Dog Park up through the upper parking lot, did a wheelie, cut over to the GRG, came back and was going back towards Shaw Park doing another wheelie.

So they are going that fast. Because I think about, I know the school district has its own rules, but I think about the people who do ride their kids to school and things like that or to the games at the parks. And I saw this more on one of my grandkids was at new city school a lot of the parents came with these bikes with the cargo bikes with the kids and you would have the class three or whatever um and there was nothing i'm sure there's the exceptions but to bar them from the parks versus putting a speed limit on it or something i think could be an issue yeah and most of the problematic ones are not supervised Yes, and they're under a certain age. Yeah, and I totally agree with you, Susan, in the sense that it just depends on the rider because yeah, somebody that's riding very cautiously through the park and has a class three e-bike, nobody's going to worry about that person.

And they might have like kids on the back or kids in the front. Yeah. But I'm still not sure they should be riding the paths through Shaw Park like on an electric bike. So if you're going to come to the park, yes, like come to a field, come to where the kids are.

But I mean, I mean, I'm I would be unless the park's empty. I mean, I ride my bike all the time. I would be uncomfortable. I always when I see a lot of pedestrians, I get off my bike.

I'm not going to be like winding down. Treat it like a car, basically. Park it and come to the game. You can still get to the park.

Right. That's how I would envision it. Okay, so if... I just want to make sure we're supporting...

I appreciate it. Especially, and again, when the kids were there, if you're riding on, let's say, the Greenway, if you're writing on a path and goes through the park and down and around and around, is that a shared path that the e-bikes aren't supposed to be on that Class 3 would be barred on? I don't want to bar what families do anyway. The Greenway is a bike.

It is, but I don't think the Greenway allows Class 3 bikes, right, Tony? The Greenway doesn't have any enforcement authority. Oh, but don't they have issues? But don't they have rules about e-bikes on the Greenway?

I mean, I don't think you can be on the Greenway technically because I mean, I. The Greenway doesn'T have a police department, though. Exactly. But our police department can enforce it in Clayton.

So when there was issues, I emailed Chief Smith about it. And I can't remember, to be honest with you. But I mean, there it is a multimodal pathway. So people walk, they run, they bike.

So and also you also see people with electric wheelchairs and scooters on there as well, too. But I can't off the top of my head. I'm sorry. I don't know if they prohibit it.

My Google don't have any enforcement. It says class three e-bikes are not recommended or restricted on many great rivers, greenway paths. And yeah, again, I think it's coming back to like, what is the use versus the vehicle itself? And I mean, I think I'd like us to think about, certainly I think there are some like the class three and the motorbike thing.

Maybe there are, we want to say, be more restrictive for sure than one that requires a license and all that. But then to what extent can we talk about the actual behavior that's being done? Because plenty of people have e-bikes because they use them for a variety of purposes and they probably don't always use them at maximum speed. Like...

Yeah. And so, you know, and we could say like, oh, we're not going to enforce it. But if we're not going enforce it, then let's not write it that way. Let's write what the behavior is.

That's what we're going to enforce. Right. That's I mean, that's what that is. Things like that.

Right. I think a lot of our. Myself included. use our bikes to get around a lot and just using our parks.

And that's what we want. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And just to clarify, when we did have this issue, there was a resident that was concerned in Shaw Park and saw a lot of kind of crazy riding on the greenway.

And chief said, we reviewed the issue and found that GRGs published guidelines prohibit motorized vehicles on greenways while allowing bicycles and scooters. So I think based on this resident's description of electric motor motorcycles without pedals. So they were those motorized bikes. They were not e-bikes per se.

So yeah. So it sounds like e-bikes are well done. It's just again, that concern about the motorized. And those cargo bikes right now are a big deal for families.

Yeah, I mean, it's really cool that people are considering those modes of transportation. So we would be in favor of allowing the Class 3? With restrictions on behaviors. Recklessness may be a speed cap, but they could even be 15.

I don't care, but I think barring them, I don't know that that's really... How many? I would have to think on that one. I don't know enough.

Like I don't have enough understanding of like whether the people I know who have e-bikes have class one, two or three. And so it's hard. Like on the one hand, I'm like, oh, well, class three is really different. Like it's okay.

Like we should say they shouldn't be on the sidewalk or certain paths. But if it's really like actually the standard type of e-bike that people are buying now, especially if they have the resources that most of our residents do. I can tell you when this conversation started, I was surprised that it was the threes and not the twos because the two is the throttle. You turn that baby on, you don't have to pedal and you go.

A class three, you got to be pedaling. Oh, really? Do you guys have a one? Do you have a class?

We have a three. Oh, you didn't know it until we had these conversations, but I've never gone over I've never gone close to 20 miles an hour, I don't think. Or in 20, whatever that is. But you have to pedal the thing.

Byron, can we go back to the other cities? I was curious because Brentwood has... Do we know... Yeah, so class one and two, because Brentwood, I mean, obviously a lot of these communities have parks, but Brentwood has that brand new city park where there are a lot of paths somewhat similar to Shell Park where there's wide paths.

And so from your review, it looked like Brentwood was allowing class one and two on these paths, but then class three were excluded. Yes, ma'am. And maybe I need to revisit the definition. So class one and two can go up to the same speed, that 20 miles per hour, but, and they both have pedals, but on class one, you have to be using the pedals for the bike to move.

Yes. It clicks it into to get it going. Like you don't have to be going pedaling as fast as the bike is going, but you have to be like doing some movement. Yeah.

You have to be pedaling before it can click in. So if you're at the bottom of a hill, you better get yourself someplace where you can start pedaling. Your power assist isn't going to click in. And then class two, you don't even need to pedal.

You can push a button or do the throttle and it'll take off. And that's how yours is too? No. I have to pedal to make it then click in.

It assists the pedal. Yeah, no, I think that's really interesting. I mean, because that, to your point, like you kind of suggested, I think that that aspect of the class too almost makes it seem potentially more dangerous or like likely to be misused. Yeah, I didn't understand.

And I think there's some, I think there's logic to that. It makes sense to me. And so, but it looks like all the other cities are doing the same thing that we've drafted, which is understandable. that acting like one and two are a certain level of safety and three is different.

I don't know. I've got some more slides. Yeah, let's keep going. This just gets into the enforcement and how PD will basically look at this, stop, separate the rider from pedestrian conflict, ask the minor to stop and listen, explain the rules in a simple fashion, check whether the bike can be ridden safely, and then contact a parent or a guardian of the juvenile riders when practical, explain the conduct, and then the next step.

And then the guardian pick up or safe dismount, walk home, We want to shy away from using officer transport, but those more serious or repeat violations, that would be an option as well. And then we do have the option of impounding a bicycle for up to five days. Currently, it's underneath our helmet and equipment regulations, but that is also something that could be written into our policy right now. There are other municipalities that use drones to track minors.

I don't think we want to be that strict, but we do need something with a little bit of bite to it. And this is kind of how it would work. kind of talk to that first response, education, graduated, and then the citation path for repeat offenders. Excuse me.

Talked about this. We have multiple slides to say the same thing. Sorry about that. So this is kind of where we're at.

Identify, protect, educate, contact, and then escalate from there. we've kind of covered this and Lieutenant divorce did a good job for that. So really, we just kind of need your feedback on where you want to go with the policy. So so I understand.

So the big thing is probably thinking about class one, two, and three, and whether we want to prohibit because it sounds like a lot of the municipalities around us prohibit class three from the sidewalks and shared use paths. So it's thinking about that. I'm wondering, because we keep talking about behavior, how you are able to put that in an ordinance and make it enforceable. So that's what I'm wondering.

The point you said is primarily juvenile comes up in here all the time. I mean, there could be an age restriction. Oh, speed restriction and recklessness. Honest comment to the mic.

Good. We have a definition of recklessly in that's in chat in our public health, safety and welfare. So that definition and that term could be used because it references disregard constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care, which a reasonable person would exercise in the situation. Perfect.

My sense would be that police officers would be assessing the recklessness and safety of situations in general. Does that feel like something you're all trying to do? Like I said earlier, obviously, warnings would be what we'd like to do first. But there are going to be situations where, based on the circumstances, the recklessness of the juvenile or whoever it might be It might warrant more heavy-handed enforcement at that time.

Yeah. Slackmo presented a presentation on e-bikes, and the Olivet chief of police was there. And one thing that she recommended was when drafting the regulation, it's got to be easy for our officers to determine or otherwise it won't get enforced. So that's part of kind of what I was trying to do with the draft regulation, make it easy for our patrol officers to say, that's wrong.

We need to enforce this and let's enforce that. So just keep that in mind as we continue the conversation. So if you saw, I mean, what is easy to enforce? You have an ordinance that you're trying to keep the community safe.

And if recklessness was a standard, is that something that, to be comfortable? Yeah, I think so. With the definition of recklessness, we have that in other ordinances, laws that we do with traffic enforcement. I think that would be something that could be done.

I think if you see a kid that's riding the bike, popping wheelies, going in and out of traffic, that's reckless. And that's something that is going to warrant more than just a verbal warning probably. You know what I mean? Can I ask, on this slide, Creve Coeur seems to be the most broadly stated, prohibits e-bikes, doesn't make any reference to classes.

And then it talks about sidewalks and crosswalks, but doesn't talk about shared paths, which obviously is relevant to us. any more insight in terms of creve corps it seems a little unclear as to is it as broad as it seems is there a reason why they don't make distinctions between the classes i do not have more information um i borrowed this from captain al through it so i can follow up with creep core again the thing that i find interesting about the regulations they're relatively new this whole idea of the three classes and in my experience with people with e-bikes the ones that take you by surprise are the throttle ones because they just take off like that. The ones that have the assist, I was kind of surprised to see that it was three that was the issue because again, I'm not sure I've ever gone over 15 miles an hour and it does cut you down when you start going after a while, but Do you have a speedometer on yours? You do.

Okay. Yeah. The same thing. I just was looking up to get a frame of reference.

I've gone on only a handful of e-bikes in my life. One of them was a line bike in Washington, D.C., the rental bikes there. And that has a throttle and they can zip. We could get everywhere fast and I had my kids on them too and now I realize that was not a good idea.

But But then when we were like on vacation once going up this like super steep hill on an e-bike that was, I was like, I'm sure that was a class three. But it was a class one bike because the place that we were in only allows class one bikes. So yeah, I don't know. I think it's helpful to think about it.

I feel like we should all go out on e-bikes one day and like figure out what the difference is. But, um, but I think you have a point about the throttle assist ones being different than, than the pedal assist, no matter what class it is. No, we have three too, because we, I, they're usually not here in town. They're usually where there's a lot of hills where we ride and without that additional, it's not to go 28 miles an hour.

It's because I need it to get up. Right. So it's not a speed thing. Um, But just maybe I shouldn't vote on this.

I don't know because we've gone back and forth with kids using it on the cargo bikes and just doing this. And in Denver, the same thing. Their bikes around town are all e-bikes. Well, but my other question is just is about enforcement and like what appetite do the patrol officers have for engaging with kids on this issue?

Because I don't I have not I've experienced many kids in my neighborhood riding on e-motorcycles or without helmets. And I have not once encountered a police officer engaged with any of those kids. I mean, that's not to say that I see the kid and the police officer at the same time. But like is it like is the general sense from the patrol officers going to be like, OK, we're going to go out and do this or like, oh, this is.

not something i want to incorporate into my day i you know i just like i know that what we say you know and if we make it an ordinance it's meant to be enforced but like what is the reality in the community to answer your question uh if they're given the directive and say this is what's important uh when you see these types of violations they'll they'll interact I think they just would want to have, like we've talked about, that clear directive. This is exactly what we need to do, what we're supposed to do, and this is what the city council, the community wants from us. I think if we can give that to the officers, there's going to be no problem with them stopping and talking to the kids and saying, hey, where's your helmet? Get your helmet on.

Let's get your safety equipment on. The majority of our officers enjoy interacting with the community. So I don't think that would be an issue. And they're trained and practiced in doing it in a way that's not really confrontational or right.

Like that's a, certainly something in their practice that. I think I've heard from like, and not, I can't say I've heard from a lot of people. I've heard from maybe five people and there's like two groups, two are the people who say, and I don't think they know the difference between, they know the old fashioned bike and they know e-bikes and they're all saying they're dangerous. And yeah, if i get hit by one i'm gonna get killed because they're going too fast so there's that one group that basically says they shouldn't go the same places where peace where people are walking and of course the further comment was what well you guys keep talking about you want us to be a walkable city and you want everybody to walk everywhere And then you have these bikes that are dangerous.

So that's one group. The other is because I do have kids, grandkids who were in school here. So I do know a few people who are parents. And some of the comment have been, yeah, even if it's not always going to be enforced, just the fact that we could say to our kids, hey, the rules used to be this and now they're this.

Just that element of, you know, we've released the city and it's against the law. You know that, you know, who knows what makes a 16 year old do anything? But just so so those are two concepts that I think are important somehow that we at least identify and we make people feel comfortable. We're doing something meaningful where people walk.

so that we don't have that. And this other thing is no matter what we do, I think from the police department standpoint, that educational piece, a lot of that is sort of this is the way it used to be and this is the way that in a sense will be somewhat self-enforcing so we don't necessarily have to impose on the police department having to run after people all the time. It's more that we can convey that to our kids and grandkids that And there's a new sheriff in town, as it were. To kind of piggyback off that, one of the things that we want to accomplish with this and really any other interaction or law that we have to enforce is we don't want to have to do something that really hinders or damages our relationship with the youth.

or their families. And so that's why we talk about not really coming off with a heavy hand right away, but if need be in certain situations like recklessness, we can, because we want to preserve that relationship with both the kids and the community and the parents. For sure. And I even think like if there's a police officer who rolls their window down and says, where's your helmet?

Like that is a fairly effective tool in my opinion. So yeah. So I'm not suggesting that we need to like drag them off in cuffs of course, but I wonder I'm starting to get to a point where I feel like class two and three maybe get lumped together. I don't know.

We can have different prohibitions for different classes. We can separate those classes out. So class one, class two and class three versus lumping class one and two together and separating three. So we can, we can do that.

I have a question, um, for you, for you officer. Yeah. Um, the how, um, Under what circumstances would you be able or patrol officers be able to measure the speed of bikes, right? Like if they're on the street or the sidewalk along the street, I assume you can measure the speed the same way you can with cars.

It would be challenging because a lot of times how our radars work is it has to hit something and bounce off of it and come back. And that would be pretty difficult for a bicycle. Because of its size, like it's small. And limited metal, you know, it's smaller.

So to be able to be able to hit that metal properly and come back is a lot of the radar equipment that we have is laser. So it uses laser to pop off. I just know from personal experience that when there have been like speed tracking signs on a route that I bike or run, like I can see I've never hit it running. Let's be clear.

But like on a bike, you know, it's like, oh yeah, that's how fast I'm going. Like it, but you know, like I'm headed kind of straight towards it. So if an officer is on the road and a bicycle is going past them, they'll theoretically be able to get that relatively easily. Parks, You're probably not going to be able to unless the vehicle, the police car is in the place.

Because like I said, those laser radars where we kind of look through, it almost looks like binoculars. You have a dot that you have to paint onto the vehicle or whatever it is that you're trying to determine what the speed is. Like I said, that laser has to hit that piece of metal that's reflective and then come back to the device to be able to register the speed. So in parks, paths, it's going to be highly unlikely that an officer is going to be able to get the speed from those.

Roadways are different. I'm just trying to... I like the idea of keying in on the throttle aspect because I think a big part of the risk or where the danger comes in is that The speed of the acceleration that like pedestrians and even other bicyclists aren't prepared to react to. And then the actual speed that people are going.

And so to the extent we could use things like that to guide the ordinance. But then, oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

This is just my personal opinion on what I've seen in my job, kind of piggyback off you. Last latter part of last year we had a traffic crash involving a juvenile on an e-bike in one of our police vehicles. I'm pretty sure it was a class two because he had the throttle on there. It was the police car was coming out of our police station and he was barreling down the sidewalk.

And I think we measured a 20 foot skid mark from the bicycle. He was traveling so fast. And so my personal opinion, this is just my personal, not necessarily professional. The class twos are probably just as dangerous on a sidewalk as a class three because of the speed and because they can, accelerate so quickly.

Yeah. That's just, that's just my personal opinion. That's what I, that was one thing that I was going to add to what you were saying is that I feel like if they're on the sidewalk and you're a driver, you're not expecting something to come flying at that speed on the sidewalk. And that's, I've heard anecdotally, a lot of stories of people saying, I almost hit that kid on the, you know, so I don't, I, yeah.

Not getting a lot of answers. And what I keep hearing, though, is it's kids primarily. It's and it's recklessness. I do.

I do wonder if we can gear the ordinance toward those three things, I think. Okay. I know that I've got my class three, but it's typically not in town. So I'm trying to be – I know other people, though, who use them.

We go to Forest Park for the symphony or something, and you ride the bikes there. So I want to do something that supports the community and targeting it towards something that our police officers can see and enforce to keep it actually usable for you, but actually the targets that are making us unsafe may be where I would think an ordinance should go. Yeah, I mean, I agree with you, Susan, because I was trying to think of, and I understand the throttle perspective, but even like, why are we treating, I mean, like respectful of the the the cars around you the pedestrians around you so thinking about behavior because why I mean I don't think you should be riding a class one bike 20 miles an hour in the park nobody should I mean you should never be riding a like through Shaw Park at 20 miles an hour so and that's a class one bike but we're gonna let a class one bike ride through the park and not a class three bike well and I mean aren't there sometimes situations where um I feel like I've been on shared paths or park paths that have speed limits posted. Yeah, on the Greenway, you're not supposed to ride at more than 20 miles an hour.

And so it's interesting to think about, what if we said the speed limit on the paths was 10 or 12 or 15, whatever we think is reasonable? And obviously, it sounds like it's going to be challenging. We're not going to sit there with a radar gun, probably. But what would you think of that?

Yeah, I believe it's O'Fallon, Missouri's e-bike policy and education pieces. They specifically point out that speed limits within their parks are 15 miles an hour. So anything going above that is going to be a violation. That makes sense, too, and low enough that someone can't say, oh, like if we put it at 20, someone would say, oh, it's going 18.

Now you want it low enough that you can actually have some cushion to know when to step up. Yeah, I like that. I mean, I think that a lot of the usage that you're talking about, Susan, is commuting usage. And so it's not like a leisurely ride through Shaw Park.

Generally speaking, it's like I'm going to a place, I'm parking my bike, and I'm doing the thing that I came there to do, at least locally, right? I mean, I'm not talking about when you're on scenic bike rides through Colorado. But I, so I like the idea of a, of a speed limit I don't love the idea of only saying this is jog something for me to juvenile because to, to go a little off topic, those one wheel things on the road the other day, I saw two people on those that came out of nowhere. And so I feel like recklessness is recklessness, no matter how old you are.

So I, I understand that ultimately the most offenders are probably the youth, but I want to not limit ourselves in enforcement to just that category of people. Yeah, I agree. What does it look like to talk about the one wheel things or even like... That is also not listed in our code currently.

They were on the road like a car. They did not have a license plate. Yeah. I don't, I mean, I was very, and they gave me some side eye, and I was like, I am the vehicle on the road anyway.

Yeah. Yeah, that is. Yeah, I don't know how those fit in, if anybody knows anything about them. Right now, they don't fit anywhere.

They're not mentioned. Yeah, the recklessness ordinance. Yeah. So Myron, do you feel like, I mean, I feel like it sounds like we're definitely focused on a speed limit on our shared paths, right?

I think we also, and potentially not necessarily prohibiting class one two and three in our parks as long as they stand or the speed limit and are not reckless is that accurate everybody would that i mean thinking about that um not necessarily prohibiting class one two or three on our shared paths as long as they stay under speed limit and are now reckless i guess that i mean what i mean what do you think One thing I would say with a speed limit, that's fine. But like I said, that's going to be hard to enforce on a bike path like the Greenway or within the parks because it's going to require the officer to get out and have that handheld and hopefully they would be able to get it just right to be able to get that speed back. But if their speed was perceived to be over the stated speed limit... Couldn't that be considered reckless?

Yes, we can maybe consider recklessness. But I don't know that in court you'd be able to approve by judging whether what their speed is that that would be determined as recklessness. I'm not sure. But I think that'd be hard to prove in court that an officer to testify, hey, I think he was going above 15.

Therefore, I cited him for recklessness. I don't know if that would really fly. But again, I'm not 100% sure. I think to what you were talking about earlier of having a definition of recklessness and being able to articulate that in a way like, going down a path popping wheelies or zooming by people repeatedly, that type of thing where you might be able to prove intentionality, that's something different.

That's very well-known term in law. And even on the bike rides, if you see people commuting on regular bikes, they may be going way faster, but if nobody else is around... doesn't matter. Whereas if you have a speed limit, that seems to make sense and gives you some cushion again, don't put it at your maximum speed.

And if they're zipping in and out, that is reckless. So I think that I think that would work. So is our focus on shared paths? Are we also talking about sidewalks?

That was gonna be my next question. So I'm curious everybody's thoughts on prohibiting sidewalk use in some of our commercial areas. I'm supportive of that. Like, I think the draft ordinance under here identifies some places downtown with a sidewalk restriction.

Well, I would also... I mean... I just think about e-bikes on Daman on the sidewalk, and that does not bring me joy. I mean...

Um... Yeah, I'm struggling to articulate this piece, which is that I feel like often when people are on the sidewalk, they behave as if they're a pedestrian. And so they're not obeying the stop signs. And so I don't know how to work that in here either.

But I think you do say something about following... motorized rules and stuff that should be in there to travel the motor yeah but again there's a personal personal experience in bike riding the only time that that we will get on the sidewalk is if there's no bike path and there's a lot of traffic and nobody's there And then you zip up on the sidewalk, you do that, then you get back on the road when it's clear again because we don't have great bike paths throughout the city. Some people would argue we have too many. But you're a responsible bike rider.

So if there's a group of people coming against you, you're going to dismount your bike and stop. Absolutely. I'm just saying, pivoting it, that's fine. It gives discretion to our police officers.

But again, you don't want an ordinance that's hard to enforce. You want to award it in a way that it works for everybody's safety. And the only time that we get up on the sidewalk is if it's not safe not to be on that sidewalk. I was also trying to be mindful of families.

So if you're a first-time bike rider, you're not going to want your kid in the street. You're probably going to put them on the sidewalk as well. So for treating e-bikes like bicycles, that also has to come into account as well. I would support a sidewalk prohibition.

For e-bikes. Yes. E-bikes, obviously. Yeah, I mean, I think, again, you're not going to be given a ticket, Susan, or something.

No, I'm okay with that. I was just pointing out that some- I'm just trying to think in practice, like for our officers, where it's going to be an issue is if they see, again, some reckless rider who's riding up and down the sidewalks and potentially putting pedestrians in danger. And heavy bikes, so that makes sense. Right, right.

Mm-hmm. To what you said, Mayor, as well as, like I talked about earlier, how we want to document some of these interactions. If we have someone that we find is a continual repeat offender of some of these prohibitions, then that's going to escalate our enforcement plan on how we deal with that, whether it be referring them to juvenile court if they're a juvenile for their prosecution and for them to determine how they want to proceed further. Or like I said, if it's a traffic violation and they're of age for municipal court, we can issue a citation for traffic violations through our court system.

I'm totally comfortable with that. And I also think just getting this out there so people know what's expected if they're a relatively new thing. Now the one-wheeler things and all that, I don't know. But just having something out there I think is very helpful for everybody.

So for areas outside of the downtown business district, like DeMunn, do you want that to be called out? Or why don't in Hanley? Or do you feel like there's not a problem per se? Or do you want officers to be able to say you're not supposed to be riding your e-bike on a sidewalk on DeMunn?

Is DeMunn considered a business district? Yes. I mean, anecdotally, but I don't know if it's called out as, yeah, in the code. It's written in the draft as commercial areas.

Okay, that's, I'm comfortable with a new exhibit. I think the biggest key for the business districts why those were called out is because there's a lot more competition for the space to play in those because you have the street trees that are not in a tree lawn you have parking meters you have outdoor dining. So if a person's on their bicycle coming at a pedestrian in downtown, there's not a lot of room for the pedestrian or the bicyclist to give way. But in a residential neighborhood, we have a lot more driveways for a bicycle to come in and out.

We have tree lawns or front yards where either party could step over in a safe zone. We just don't have that in a lot of our commercial areas. So that's why I would treat those differently. So...

So we don't necessarily need to be specific. I just worried like about getting too granular and then being sort of, well, I feel we could probably play around with it with voice too. But if we have an exhibit that at the very least clearly identifies where pedestrians are prioritized within the business districts and what exactly that language is, but that would then yield to the education piece of like, and should know, because we see it all the time in downtown, you probably shouldn't ride your e-bike and pass after dining at Sushi AI and think it's funny. Yeah, I think exactly what you said, where there's two, three, or four things competing for that sidewalk real estate, we want to be really clear about that.

That's reckless. But are we going to prohibit e-bikes on all sidewalks or only in the designated areas? Only in the designated areas. And you'll work on drawing that up, and it'll be easy enough.

Yeah. Myron, do you feel comfortable with some of the, I guess... So some speed restrictions in our shared paths, define recklessness or point to where recklessness is defined in our code and then restrictions outlining more of our commercial areas. My only contrarian point of view is that we still have many people who are joggers and walkers, who walk on many of our residential streets, and who I still think that the thought of having an e-bike following me behind me at close...

I mean, our sidewalks, I realize they're not competing with restaurants and things, but sidewalks are still relatively narrow. And so I'm not sure. I mean, maybe this is an incremental step But I think you're going to hear, if you don't do it more generally, you're going to feel uncomfortable walking or jogging. So I would have some concern about this rather narrow limitation.

Do you mean just so you would be more in favor of prohibiting e-bike usage on all sidewalks? Yes. Got it. Okay.

I would. And I think our community would prefer that. I think, like you said, I mean, I, I guess I'd be more in favor of more of an incremental step. And we see how it goes in our commercial areas and then just Yeah, yeah, I don't.

I just don't know if there's and maybe others have seen it. I mean, I know we see kids on e-bikes on sidewalks, but like you said, there's more space. Well, I'm curious coming back to something I said before, knowing more about Creve Coeur, it says here prohibit e-bikes, on sidewalks. It doesn't say some sidewalks, it says sidewalks.

Do they in fact prohibit e- bikes on all sidewalks in Creve Coeur? And if they do, and they do already, what's been the experience of that? That's a city I think we have some respect for. It's a big city.

If they prohibit e-bikes on sidewalks, why does it work there? And we're concerned it doesn't work here. Do they have the same kind of sidewalk system that we have in Cleveland? That I don't know.

Of course, it's a big city in Cleveland. Yeah, I just think it's very different. I mean, they do have sidewalks. I just think the areas of Creepcore that I think of where Clara has friends and stuff, there's not sidewalks.

For me, I feel like this is a piece of it, Gary, that I definitely want to think about between now and when we actually have an ordinance to vote on and we can think about, is it all sidewalks? Have we picked the right sidewalks? Whatever. I think that's a great, it's worth considering.

And I mean, I think it would be helpful for staff to maybe talk to some more folks in Creve Coeur and see, is that really what it says? Does it really mean all sidewalks? And if so, what's the experience? I'm sure they would have heard from people who have e-bikes.

It's a big population who have said, hey, that's crazy. I can't mind. There's not a single sidewalk in Creve Cour. I mean, so before we make a final decision, I'd like to know what's been their actual experience and what are the limitations in Creve Coeurs?

Understood. And because I kind of thought too, that bicycles weren't always, I mean, there's a purpose to not be in the sidewalk anyway for any bicycle. I don't know if it's that much different with an e-bike when you're going a pedestrian. Right.

And the explanation about when there's space, it makes sense. You know, when you've got room to move, that's fine. But yeah, I mean, I think about when bikes are on sidewalks, it's kids. Right.

They're this big. Yeah. Right. And otherwise, you should be in the street, whether you're on an e-bike or a regular bike.

I agree. Yeah, for sure. And you should be obeying the traffic laws. I think that's a culture anyway.

Yeah. Yeah. I just, one other observation about jogging. Haven't done it for a long time is that I know in theory, people who jog sort of know you should go and be on the right side, not take up the whole sidewalk because there are traditionally older bikes who sort of drive by, but to joggers don't tend to do that.

They just sort of spread out. And then they, now that's joggers fault, but I think that's another reason why as a jogger, you're really at risk when you're running on the sidewalk and And you're taking up the whole sidewalk and then you have an e-bike coming up behind you. So, I mean, it just I think sidewalks by their very nature for walkers and joggers present a hazard that I think we ought to deal with. We didn't have to deal with it 20 years ago because we didn't have e-bikes, but we do now.

Right. And then on the topic of like for helmets, it's just being clear clarifying that the helmet requirement applies to all of these types of vehicles and it's just bicycle rig like we have now. Okay, so that's complicated things. If we're doing this, and we're talking about these other vehicles that have no regulation, is there a broader ordinance we could do for people riding Segways?

Yeah, or just call it something else. Maybe not a separate e-bike. I don't care. But is there something that says any electrified electric vehicle that you have is subject to a speed limit and recklessness, whatever, because then you're covering all the stuff that keeps getting created.

By the powers vested in you by the state of Missouri can do that. No, but I think it's worth thinking about especially if we're not at this point thinking about making different, I think at this point we're not talking about something different for one, two and three, are we? I think we landed on treating them the same and then focusing on the behaviors and the recklessness. And so I think it's interesting still to call out what these different e-bikes are since they're so common and there are these clear definitions, it seems.

But like to the extent we could say something like any other motorized or electrified vehicle is subject to these same requirements for helmet and speed and recklessness however you word it yeah and then you include i mean i think you don't know what the name of this one wheeled vehicle is i don't know if it's called it's like called a one wheel And they are high-performance, and there are also high-performance electric unicycles called EUCs. The high-performance ones can reach 60 to over 90 miles per hour, but the standard one wheel has a top speed of 16 to 25. I mean, they're going down. They look like they're faster than that.

Yeah, mid-range EUCs go 40 to 50 miles per hour. They're going down Y down all the time. Yeah, at least 30 miles an hour. Right.

Yeah, but I think, Myron, yeah, for sure, thinking about how we can, we might as well. About electric and motorized vehicles. One fell swoop. And then I guess, I'm just curious before we wrap up, just because I'm looking at the helmets, and everybody's still thinking that we're only going to require helmets for under 17s.

Still, because I just, I mean, helmets are required in the other municipalities. I'm just asking so that we... That's what we currently have, right? Yeah.

I don't know. I'm just... I always wear a helmet, so I'm not worried about it, but I understand if people... choose not to i guess i just i'm i just find it interesting that um you know town and country and creep core require helmets no matter what your age so and richmond heights doesn't specify the same as ours basically right yeah what's the why do we say 17 instead of eight like so that means a 17 year old doesn't have to wear a helmet right i kind of was thinking it was like 17 and under again.

Yeah, I think that might be part of not a reflection of the law that was changed a few years ago for raise the age. from 17 to 18, 17 and under is now a juvenile versus 16 and under. So can we update if that matches like the definition of a juvenile or something? By Missouri law, definition of a juvenile is 17 and under.

But it used to be. It used to be 16 and under as a juvenile. So the other thing that I just looked up is that Missouri law requires motorcycle operators and passengers under 26 years of age to wear, wait, yeah, under 26 years old, you have to wear a helmet on a motorcycle. Oh, that's interesting.

I didn't think about the fact that we have, I mean, we have a helmet law in Missouri, right? For motorcycle. No, not anymore. We don't have to have.

You don't even under 26? This says ages 20. AI tells me. Ages 26 or older.

We didn't. You don't have to. Five years ago we voted it out. I'm surprised the city of Missouri hasn't preempted our ability to It says under 26, you have to wear a helmet.

And if you don't have a helmet on, you have to carry your health insurance coverage. Are you serious? That's what this tells me. I mean, because the AI never lies, right?

Very clever. Well, I mean, I just bring that up because it's something to think about. You know, I don't... I don't know how people feel about that.

I'm happy to leave it the way it is, requiring 17 and under to wear a helmet, but it's just something because it's a different approach in municipalities around us. So maybe just be thinking about that and we can. Okay. All right.

Any other comments, questions, thoughts? Council Member Betsy Meyland-Smith, any further AI reflection? I think I have confirmed the helmet law for motorcycles is 26 and under. You have to wear a helmet.

Very good. Great. All right. Thank you, everybody.

Have a good weekend. Happy homecoming. Thank you. Happy homecoming, Myron.

Be homecoming. See you tomorrow. Yep. 10 o'clock.

10 o' clock. 10 o'

10-16-2026 CC SDS Minutes October 16, 2026 Page 1 of 1

THE CITY OF CLAYTON

City Council Strategic Discussion Session In-Person and Virtual (Zoom) Meeting October 16, 2026 Clayton City Hall Council Chambers – 2nd Fl. 10 N. Bemiston Avenue 3:00 p.m.

Minutes

The meeting was open to individuals to attend in-person and/or virtually via Zoom.

City Council: Mayor McAndrew, Susan Buse, Becky Patel, Gary Feder, and Betsy Meyland- Smith.

Staff: Assistant City Manager Burr and City Clerk Frazier

Absent: Jeffery Yorg, Kami Waldman, and City Manager Gipson

PRESENTATION ON E-BIKE/SCOOTER REGULATIONS

Lieutenant Jeff DeVorss, Clayton Police Department, addressed the Council providing a presentation on E-Bike enforcement and regulations. (copy available in the City Clerk’s office).

Assistant City Manager Burr discussed suggested amendments to the City Code related to E- bike regulations.

No action (vote) was taken.

There being no further discussion, the City Council adjourned at 4:15 p.m.