Bethlehem City Council to Consider Restrictions on Dirt Bikes and ATVs, and Selling Gas to Riders; I Say, `Seize Them, and Smash Them!’

Bethlehem City Council will consider a bill to ban dirt bikes and four-wheelers (ATVs) from city streets, sidewalks and bike lanes at its meeting on Tuesday, Sept. Sept. 3.

The ordinance would update existing prohibitions.

Here’s hoping this moves forward, and here’s hoping that City Council doesn’t have to listen to hours of people talking about violence in the Middle East.

This is not the place for that. So back to city business:

The ordinance also prohibits selling gas to riders of dirt bikes and ATVs, unless the bikes/quads are secured on a trailer or other authorized carrier.

Council’s Public Safety Committee will review the ordinance first, at a 6 p.m. meeting before the full council.

Fines for violating the ordinance will start at $50 and go up to as much as $300.

I don’t know if the ordinance will apply to the loud, dirty two-stroke engines that are used on some bicycles.

It’s hard for police to catch riders of dirt bikes and ATVs, who are already violating the law and can slip down alleyways and between houses, but it’s a good step. These vehicles are already prohibited in some cases, but this new rule may add some clarity.

The main thing about this ordinance, which is in part a revision, is that it allows for the seizure of the unregistered vehicles.

That’s a good idea. Take them, drain the gas tank and oil, and smash them up. I share the road with enough dangerous drives in licensed vehicles without having to put up with scofflaws.

Bethlehem City Council will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 3 in Town Hall, the building between City Hall and the Bethlehem Area Public Library.

The committee meeting cites ordinances in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and one from Reading in Berks County, where the problem is probably worse than here. I went through Brideport last year on the way back from Newport, Rhode Island, and I don’t recall any morons on quads on public streets.

This is purely anecdotal, but I have seen fewer in Bethlehem this year than before.

Here’s the proposed ordinance:

https://www.bethlehem-pa.gov/getattachment/Calendar/Meetings/2024/City-Council-Meetings/338/09d-All-Terrain-Vehicles-and-Dirt-Bikes-Ordinance-(1).pdf.aspx?lang=en-US

Here’s the meeting agenda:

https://www.bethlehem-pa.gov/getattachment/Calendar/Meetings/2024/City-Council-Meetings/338/00-Agenda-090324.pdf.aspx?lang=en-US

Here’s the Public Safety Committee agenda:

https://www.bethlehem-pa.gov/Calendar/Meetings/2024/Committee-Meetings/360