City Council - workshop

Good afternoon and welcome to the August 10th, 2026 workshop of the Orlando City Council. Thank you for being here today. We are going to be looking at mobility, safety and enforcement. And when a lot of the micro mobility stuff came into downtown, we were kind of flying by the seat of our pants back then. And today we have a lot of mobility options that have really grown in popularity over the last decade. Really the last year and he scooters and he bikes and electric skateboards and all types of micro mobility devices so our goal is to better understand our Opportunities our challenges and o

OKAY. THOUGHTS OR QUESTIONS? COMMISSIONER ROSE AND COMMISSIONER SHEEN AND THEN COMMISSIONER KEEN.

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE PRESENTATION. SO THIS IS AN OPD QUESTION. This presentation was focused a lot on e-bikes and rules. What are we doing as a city to enforce proper drivers and enforcing drivers who are not given the right of way to bikes? So one of the videos you show a lady with the kid was in a bike lane where he should have been and he got hit by like the car ran him over. Like what are we doing as a city to ensure that our bikers are safe? Because if we're looking at implementing, especially our younger kids, so thinking about the community that I live in where our kids are biking to s

Okay, to touch on something that was mentioned, I think we need to start evaluating at our larger intersections the lights. So I'm going to speak as a parent whose child gets stuck on OBT because it is a four-lane road to cross. The lights are not long enough to cross. So a kid will take the chance of running, like, let me dart across here while I have the opportunity and there are no cars, then running the risk and sending out a light. Those lights usually only allow you to go halfway across and then you get stuck in the middle. some of those the the medians are not large enough to sit and pu

Hey, Chief, while you're there, can you describe what dismissal of school time looks like these days?

uh thank you mayor and commissioners um you know i i walk four to six miles every day and i have an e-bike and we do our rides on on the weekends but i only have an e-bike because i'm old and i can't keep up anymore so i'm not riding crazy but something that i have noticed Motorized bikes have been around forever. They were the precursor to motorcycles. So the problem is the behavior. It's not the technology because, like I say, they had motorized bicycles before they even had motorcycles and it created that technology. So the problem is the way that they're using them. Something that I've bee

Well, the e-bike takes off. Wow, okay. Are we tracking how many times the e-mobility people are hitting pedestrians in a separate category?

Okay, I'd like to have that because I think that's a real concern is that, you know, And as I'm riding on the weekends and as I'm walking, I'd like to know how many, I see a lot of dangerous behavior and like I say, I just jump off the trail or do whatever I have to do or even I'm walking my little dog. Unfortunately, she's taken to barking at the bikes now, so it makes it worse because she's interacting with them and getting upset. And I'm just walking my little dog on a sidewalk in my own neighborhood, and I'm dealing with this kind of behavior. So I know that other residents are dealing wit

We do require that on cars, exactly. We require horns on cars.

Well, and I think part of that, too, might be, and I know that our folks are doing a good job with education, but we might need to post some of these rules of the road on our trails. and maybe not as many because it was a lot to read all at one time, but the basics like yield to pedestrians, use an audible signal, and things like that to at least try to make it somewhat safer. But I agree, Chief. The problem isn't the old folks using pedal assist. The problem isn't the kids trying to get to school, except for the mass exit situation. I think we can deal with that with education. But it's this

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Keene.

Where do I start, sir? Thank you, Mayor. I've got probably an hour and a half worth of questions, so I'm going to try to limit it here to a few things. First, Mike, I've got a question for you. I know Orange County is looking at a new ordinance, and I would want to make sure that whatever ordinance that we come up with, it mirrors that so that we don't end up with a patchwork of ordinances across the county. And I'm just I want to make sure, I noticed in your presentation you talked about the current, but you didn't talk about their new ordinances coming up. Have you had an opportunity to look

Sure. But I do think consistency is extremely important. Whatever they do, as long as we agree with it, that we mirror it and we don't end up with different things. So, for example, I don't know whether they're going to require photo IDs while operating. What kind of photo ID is an 8-year-old going to have? I mean, I look at that, and your comment up front was do something that's enforceable, and yet then you come up with a photo ID, and it's kind of like, okay, is that really...

And then that age restriction was another question I had. You mentioned that we have to comply with state law, and state law doesn't have an age restriction. Are you saying that because they don't have it in law, we could actually impose an age restriction separate?

OK. And you have a recommendation for an age?

be able for an officer to look and say that's a 10-year-old or 12-year-old. Correct.

And I noticed in here, again, I realize it's not your recommendation, but you talk about sidewalks and things like that. My concern about sidewalks is that There are a lot of streets that it's really not safe regardless of whether there's a bike lane there or not. And I'm gonna use Narcoossee as an example. There is a bike lane, but cars travel 45 and obviously they're gonna go faster. I wouldn't want my, I won't want to ride on it unless that was with a group. I certainly wouldn't want a child to be out there on that road, I want them to be on the sidewalk. And I would say a lot of the times

All right, thank you very much for that. And I would just say, Chief Smith showed some videos here that look like they were taken right in my neighborhood, no question that they were. But a lot of those videos, those were not e-bikes, those were e-motos that were in a lot of those videos. And I'd caution us to make sure that a lot of those Commissioner Sheehan, would you call them a group, you call them a pack? Yeah. A lot of those, and they are mostly boys, there's no question, but a lot of those folks are not on e-bikes, they're on e-motos, right? So there's another caution there that we are

know put your helmet on and you're still you ignored me so here's a 62 50 ticket so it's one of those kind of things we do but of course our goal like anything else is education first sure mayor i could keep going but i'll stop thank you okay commissioner chapin um i appreciated the idea of the social studies classes in public schools i would just uh think about uh expanding that to some of our private schools and charter schools i know that's not our job but whoever is you know maybe can suggest that especially the larger private schools how are we going to get pulled into the orange county p

And then as it comes to speed again we get that practicality and we do really going to radar kid going 18 miles an hour if we implement a 15 mile an hour means that we're talking about.

Chrissy can you tell us what Orange County public schools did.

So that means you have to be at least 15 to get a restrict, I assume that covers restricted licenses as well. Restricted licenses. So you gotta be 15 and have a license.

Okay, I'm going to take Commissioner Ortiz and then come back to Rose and Sheehan.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, all of you, for this great presentation. It's something that's been really hitting us hard lately, and the city of Orlando gets accused for not doing enough, but how can you control some of the things when we're preempted by the state, right? So let me ask you something. How many, before this e-bike, Christine, Christina? I'M SORRY. HOW MANY BICYCLE INCIDENTS DID WE HAVE BEFORE, I MEAN, WHEN WE COMPARE BEFORE THIS E-BIKES CAME OUT AND E-SCOOTERS, WHAT WAS THE RATE OF ACCIDENTS COMPARED TO WHAT WE HAVE NOW? HAS IT INCREASED A LOT MORE?

I know these scooters have caused some serious issues. I even have a close friend who died about a month ago. He fell off his scooter, hit his head, and he was gone. So the chief brought up something that is important. A reality that I don't know how we're going to address this, the fact that there's the motors on the e-bikes and all of these guys camouflage the the bikes. I mean, in order to I mean, the e-motors and they camouflage them as bikes in order to get away with what they do. So do we require tags for this e-motors?

So how about, you know how mopeds have these little tags?

We'll have to get legislation from the state, and it doesn't seem like they're being very cooperative right now with that. I know that some of these bikes, e-bikes, are being altered to function at a higher speed also, so they can go out there with the other motors and do whatever it is that they do, and blocking streets. And I know what a mess it can become for the police when you have all these guys, you know, riding. So... But it really strikes me that the state doesn't allow us to take legal action in terms of giving citations or arrest them or whatnot on these e-bikes. Is that what you me

Just for the record, for how long have we been seeing these problems? 5, 7, 6, 7 years. I don't know. How long we've been dealing with this now?

Have any of our delegation come over to see what they can do for us in terms of enacting laws at the state level that would help us negotiate with this?

No, no, but what I'm saying, has any of them have come to see you about this? Okay. I just want to see that for the record. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Okay, Commissioner Rose and Commissioner Sheehan.

So I want, from an OPD community perspective, I want us to be cognizant collectively about age restrictions because it does leave room for profiling. And we get hit with that enough in our cities and our communities. So I want us to be cognizant collectively. As you saw, the governor just vetoed the regulations and the stipulations that were in place. um you know we'll have a new administration come january but i want us to be as a council i want us to be cognizant especially in the minority communities um where profiling is already a thing so i want us to be cognizant of ages um the the hassl

Yeah, I'm looking at the. The electric bicycles are more. The chart here. And it says Class 3E bike bike with electric motor that only engages while the rattle is patterning. It says pedal assist, but I think that I think the Class 2 and Class 3. are transposed because the class three, I think, don't have pedals. And those are the motor bikes. So if there's a way that we can separate out the ones that don't have pedals, maybe that's a way to be able to separate out the moto bikes that seem to be a lot of the problem is those, and those are the ones that aren't legal anywhere.

Yeah, but a lot of the ones that they were riding where they were engaging with law enforcement didn't have the pedals.

Yeah, and that's what I was gonna ask. Emoto isn't even on this chart and an emoto. How fast can that go? So you're saying that can go as fast as a motorcycle It's it's going to vary.

Right, can you ban them if they don't have pedals?

So as I'm saying, it would be easier for a police officer to see if it doesn't have pedals. Correct. That would be an easy thing to be able to see. And it looked like a lot of those rotten kids that were blocking the intersection were riding those kinds of vehicles. So, you know, I mean, like I say, I think we're more interested in banning the bad behavior that is attracted to the bad. you know the the the moto bikes and stuff like that um yeah i mean i i don't want to stop kids from being able to ride to school i understand a lot of schools are pulling from a lot further you know my kids are

real quick i agree with commissioner sheehan i think we should focus a little bit more on the emotos you can see if they don't have a pedal i'm assuming that if an adult is riding one of those on the street they're supposed to have a license tag there there's certain things that they have to do so it just seems like those are going to be easier to find where the kids with the pedals can say well i turned off the e part of it i'm just riding my bike that happens to have a battery that i'm not using um but the emoto stuff is the has the speed and which is the most determined is probably the most

Commissioner Ortiz, then Commissioner Rose.

Thank you, Mayor. One last question. What determines the point at which someone needs a license, a vehicle that rides over 45 miles an hour, or at what point do you need a driver's license or a license of any?

Then we have to define what a motor is, because there's little bikes now.

Okay, so with the photo ID issue, and I know that it's tough to require a kid to have a photo ID in some of these circumstances. But on the other hand, it's not just an enforcement issue. Something happens to a kid, the police wants to be able to identify this kid and be able to contact their parents immediately. So I think the photo ID may be a good thing at the end of the day, so. THANK YOU. OKAY, COMMISSIONER ROSE.

I WOULD LIKE FOR US TO RUN COMMUNICATIONS, ALL OF THE DEPARTMENTS INVOLVED, TO RUN CAMPAIGNING ON EDUCATION. I THINK WE NEED TO DO A FULL EDUCATION CAMPAIGN SO EVERYONE IS AWARE. I THINK THE MEDIA IS HERE, DOESN'T POTENTIALLY HELP US WITH THAT, BUT I THINK USING OUR SOCIAL PLATFORMS, ALL OF OUR NEWSLETTERS AND ALL OF THE DEPARTMENTS TO LET FOLKS KNOW WHAT'S RIGHT, WHAT'S WRONG. I don't think the scary OPD videos work, Chief Smith, because it causes confusion and causes more uproar than anything. But just like even if you sat down and say, we welcome bikes like in the positive manner, we welcom

Okay, thank you everybody. So I agree with Commissioner Keene that it would be great if we can be consistent with the other governments, including the county, but the other local governments as well. I wish that the school district would have mandated a course of 30 minutes 45 minutes on rules of the road. I think Volusia County I saw is doing that but they didn't so we're going to need to press as much education as we can in whatever aspects and ways that we can do that. We'll look at what we might bring back to council but I think we ought to let school year play out for a month or so see wh

Okay. Thank you. That concludes our workshop for the day. We will add an opportunity to get us in position for...