47-19 - Updates to City Traffic Code to account for mobility devices (electric bikes, scooters)

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ORDINANCE NO. 47-19 Placed on 1st reading and referred to Finance 11/18/19; 2nd reading 12/2/19 Anderson, Bullock, George, Litten, O'Leary, BY: O'Malley, Rader AN ORDINANCE to take effect immediately provided it receives the affirmative vote of at least two thirds of the members of Council, or otherwise to take effect at the earliest period allowed by law, amending or repealing various sections of the Lakewood Codified Ordinances to allow for the regulation and distinction of electronic bikes and electronic scooters within the City of Lakewood. WHEREAS, Cuyahoga County has entered into an agreement with various vendors to encourage the use of electronic bikes and electronic scooters throughout the County where a municipality opts -in to the agreement; and WHEREAS, Lakewood has already experience some impact by the presence of these devices; and WHEREAS, in order to adequately regulate these devices to insure the safety of users and pedestrians updates to the codified ordinances are required; WHEREAS, pursuant to the Constitution of the State of Ohio and the Ohio Revised Code, municipalities have the power to enact laws that are for the health, safety, welfare, comfort and peace of the citizens of the municipality; and WHEREAS, as set forth in Section 2.12 of the Third Amended Charter of the City of Lakewood, this Council by a vote of at least two thirds of its members determines that this ordinance is an emergency measure and that it shall take effect immediately after it is approved by the Mayor, and that it is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public property, health, and safety and to provide for the usual daily operation of municipal departments, in that electronic bikes and electronic scooters are already present in Lakewood and should be regulated for vehicular and pedestrian safety; now, therefore, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY OF LAKEWOOD, OHIO: Section 1. Section 301.04, Bicycle; Motorized Bicycle, of the Lakewood Codified Ordinances, currently reading as follows: 301.04 BICYCLE; MOTORIZED BICYCLE. (a) "Bicycle" means every device, other than a device that is designed solely for use as a toy vehicle by a child, that is propelled solely by human power, upon which a person may ride, and that has two or more wheels, any of which is more than fourteen inches in diameter. (b) "Motorized bicycle" means any vehicle having either two tandem wheels or one wheel in the front and two wheels in the rear, that is capable of being pedaled and is equipped with a helper motor of not more than fifty cubic centimeters piston displacement which produces no more than