PROVINCETOWN — Disagreement about public safety on Commercial Street kept the select board from finding a consensus on May 13, with three members supporting a “walk zone” that would require riders of bicycles, electric bicycles, scooters, and skateboards to dismount in congested parts of the roadway during July and August. Two members opposed the idea.
The board ultimately deferred a decision until after a hearing of the licensing board on new regulations for electric scooters and a public hearing on June 24 to consider broader changes for rented and personal vehicles.
New electric scooter rules were already in the works when a collision on Commercial Street on May 4 sent pedestrian Corey Johnson to Cape Cod Hospital in an ambulance.
“I was walking in front of Adams Pharmacy when I was slammed by a very large electric skateboard,” Johnson told the board. “It was a good-size skateboard, almost a surfboard on wheels, and I fell forward, almost blacked out, was screaming with pain, and could barely stand up.”
Johnson said EMS responders were worried he had a concussion and insisted on the ambulance ride. “Thankfully, I didn’t have a concussion, but I’m in a boot and on crutches,” he said. “I love Provincetown. I ride my bike up and down Commercial Street, but I do think some of these electric vehicles are dangerous.”
The electric skateboard operator, who was traveling against the direction of traffic, has not been identified. The Provincetown police refused to provide a copy of the incident report.
At the select board meeting, taxi driver Philip Desmarais and former board member Austin Knight agreed with Johnson.
“I’m shocked that we haven’t had a fatality yet,” said Desmarais. “I don’t know the solution. Everyone’s on their phone all the time, not looking up.”
Board members agreed that Commercial Street has grown more chaotic as electric bikes, scooters, and skateboards proliferate. The board drafted a list of regulations for the licensing board to consider, including for pedicabs, electric scooter and bike rentals, and “other devices, motorized and nonmotorized.”
Among the possibilities were limits on how many licensed pedicabs and rented scooters should exist; hours of operation for rented scooters; programmed speed limits for all electric vehicles; and a schedule of fines and penalties for both licensed drivers and company owners.
That motion passed unanimously. But disagreement broke out when the subject turned to regulating noncommercial traffic.
The ‘Walk Zone’
“We’ve had a lot of discussion about what might work,” said chair Dave Abramson, “and one idea is a ‘walk zone’ from Center Street to Masonic Place, where no matter what you’re on, you walk. From an officer’s point of view, it can be difficult to tell what’s motorized and what’s not motorized, but it’s easy to tell if someone is riding versus walking.”
Board member Erik Borg said allowing bicycles to travel both ways on Commercial Street was not the problem. “I think we should be focusing on the issue, which to me is the electric bikes and scooters,” he said.
“I’m concerned about pushing traffic out to Bradford Street,” said board member Austin Miller. “We’ve also had big safety incidents and injuries there. We need to look at this comprehensively and not at piecemeal solutions.” Miller called for a comprehensive traffic study before changing the rules.
“Everyone would pay attention if a walk zone happened,” said board member John Golden, “and then if things started to look good, we could let bicycles back in.”
“I think the idea of a walk zone is very interesting,” said board member Leslie Sandberg. “It would only be for a few months, and it might be a really nice experience.”
“I don’t think we should be punishing people who are legally riding their nonmotorized bikes,” said Miller.
“We’re not criminalizing people; we’re treating everybody equally,” said Sandberg.
Borg said the police should be pushed to enforce the existing rule restricting motorized bikes and scooters from traveling the wrong way on Commercial Street before passing any new regulations.
Enforcement Issues
Provincetown’s traffic regulations already state that “motorized bicycles and motorized scooters shall comply with the one-way directional traffic flow on Commercial Street.”
At the July 2018 meeting when the select board adopted that rule, Provincetown Police Chief Jim Golden said his department wouldn’t focus on issuing citations to violators.
Chief Golden was not at the May 13 meeting. Sandberg and Abramson asked Town Manager Alex Morse what kind of enforcement they could expect from the police. Morse said he was working with the department on a campaign to raise awareness of bike and scooter regulations.
Seasonal Community Service Officers (CSOs), who don’t have the authority to issue citations, will educate people on road safety, said Morse. They will learn to use whistles to signal violators to pull over and then distribute postcards to educate riders on the laws.
“We’re not going to be able to enforce every single device, even with a regulation,” said Morse. “We have limited resources. But I want to make sure that the resources and staff that we have are doing more than they have done in the past around enforcement and public education.”
“If we jump too soon into enforcement without the education component, it upsets a lot of people,” said Deputy Police Chief Greg Hennick. In addition to CSOs, the education campaign would use social media, banners, and sandwich boards to promote existing rules.
Borg and Sandberg asked Hennick to explain how CSOs would distribute postcards to people on bikes and scooters who are riding quickly by. Hennick said they would be trained to approach cyclists and scooter riders as they stop at intersections and use whistles to pull rule-breakers over.
Sandberg asked if the CSOs could be on bicycles. Hennick said many of the officers had already asked to work shifts on bicycles, and that training for such work would begin in early June.
Without much other agreement in sight, the board asked Morse and Hennick to focus on public education for the next six weeks and set a public hearing to consider more sweeping changes on June 24.
