Bristol Considers Dropping Neighborhood Speed Limit To 15 MPH

Amid growing safety concerns on local roads, Bristol Borough officials have directed the municipality’s solicitor to draft an ordinance that would put the speed limit on all residential side streets to 15 mph.

The borough council’s directive earlier this month comes after a recent incident in neighboring Bristol Township where a 5-year-old child on an e-bike was struck along Green Lane.

“I’m trying to avoid an issue if we can,” Council President Ralph DiGuiseppe said.

Under the proposed ordinance, all residential side streets in the riverfront town would mirror the strict speed limit of a school zone.

Uncertainty surrounding current speed limits on borough roads contributes to the speeding problem, DiGuiseppe noted. He added that the borough’s narrow residential streets need clear restrictions.

“That street speed limit should be 15 miles an hour,” DiGuiseppe said.

The 15 mph limit would apply to side streets, including Lafayette, Washington, Darren, Spruce, Race, Cleveland, and Jackson streets. Meanwhile, main thoroughfares like Jefferson, Pond, Beaver, and Farragut streets would maintain a 25 mph speed limit.

Bristol Borough Police Chief Joe Moors said he supported the speed limit changes.

“I can tell you at 25 miles an hour when one of the scooters comes off the sidewalk or the corner, you’re not going to have enough time to stop,” Moors said.

The chief shared the story of a recent near-miss where a youth on a stand-up scooter flew down a sidewalk at high speed and nearly hit his police vehicle.

Residents and officials have increasingly complained about the dangers of e-bikes and e-scooters being operated recklessly throughout the borough.

DiGuiseppe shared an account from his own street where a motorist narrowly missed a child on a scooter.

“The kid had headphones on, didn’t even hear a car, and just kept going like nothing happened,” DiGuiseppe said.

Moors announced that the police department is preparing to launch a crackdown on illegal stand-up e-scooters in the near future.

“The scooters that you stand on are completely illegal except for private property,” Moors said. “Very soon we’re going to start seizing the scooters. I really don’t want to occupy our time with that, but I feel it’s very important and we’re going to initiate that in the near future before a tragedy happens here.”

The impending seizures follow a year-long effort by the police department to address the micro-mobility surge and complaints that have come with it.

Police have previously posted Pennsylvania’s micro-mobility laws on the borough website, distributed educational materials through local schools, and pulled over e-bike riders to issue citations.

As part of Pennsylvania state law, e-bike riders must be at least 16 years old, wear a helmet, and utilize bike lights. Electric dirt bikes designed to look like off-road motorcycles are entirely banned from public roads, a rule borough officers have already been enforcing through vehicle seizures.

Moors said that while the number of e-bikes and e-scooters on the streets has declined in recent weeks, the issue persists.

“We’ve been trying to educate the kids for the past year,” Moors said. “We’ve worked with the schools. We’ve been handing out the micro-mobility laws for the state of Pennsylvania.”