Our fight against the onerous bike ordinance proposed in the village of Mamaroneck has had a huge impact. The revised bill, which will come before the village board on Aug. 16, now eliminates the draconian penalties and unnecessary restrictions included in the first draft, which was circulated earlier this month.

We’ll be at the hearing supporting the legislation. After six of us appeared at the July 19 meeting, they asked for input, and then incorporated our ideas into the final proposal. It all happened quite quickly.

Under the original proposal, bikes in all commercial areas could only be parked in designated areas, with penalties for mis-parking your bike of up to $250, 15 days in jail, and impoundment of your bike.

The revised law requires parking at designated areas on several blocks of Mamaroneck Avenue in downtown Mamaroneck, but it also allows cyclists to lean their bikes against a building as long as it doesn’t impede pedestrian traffic.

The proposed bill had barred children from riding their bikes or scooters on sidewalks in the village unless under the supervision of an adult. The revised law allows them to ride independently on sidewalks as long as they do so in a safe manner. They are only barred  from riding on a few blocks downtown, which seems reasonable.

The village plans to install 25 bike hitching posts in the downtown, as well as several bike racks. Infrastructure like this will encourage folks to ride in the village.

The process was a good one, and will lead to a new partnership with the village. The East Coast Greenway runs through the village as it comes up Palmer Ave., jogs along Mamaroneck Avenue for a block and then head up Halstead to Harrison. We’d like to get the route signed, so people can follow it, as part of the 3,000 mile route from Florida to Maine. Efforts to do so in the Westchester communities stalled several years ago, and now is the time to revive it.

Yours parking without impeding pedestrian traffic,

BWA President David Wilson