Some Cape May City residents are outraged after dozens of bikes on the boardwalk promenade were impounded by city workers.
“They had these huge pliers this big,” said Arina Foggen who was visiting Cape May from Washington DC on Monday. “They just started snipping the locks off.”
As Foggen and her family left the beach Monday on Decatur Avenue at the boardwalk promenade, city workers cut the locks to 30 bikes that were chained to the promenade fence. They were then hauled off to the West Cape May police annex.
“They were putting them in the back of a pickup truck and taking them away and they were labeled Cape May City trucks,” said Sharon McBride, who was also visiting from Washington, DC. “I think it’s very unfortunate and not in the spirit of a beach town that should promote riding bikes and tourism.”
Branden Smith, a 13-year-old Cape May resident, told NBC10 his bike was among the impounded.
“We ran down here and our bikes were in there and we were like, ‘What are you doing with our bikes?’ The cop said, ‘You’re not allowed to leave them up there.’ They never gave us a warning or anything,” Smith said.
Smith told NBC10 he locked his bike on the promenade because the street level racks were full. He eventually got his bike back.
Local
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
Cape May officials say there is a city ordinance which bans bikes from being locked and left on the promenade between May 1 and October 31 except between the hours of 4 to 10 a.m.
Riders who leave their bikes there must pay a $100 summons though they have an opportunity to fight it in court. Residents argue that there are no visible warnings however. While signs on the promenade make it clear that riding bikes is only permissible until 10 a.m. nowhere is it clearly posted that you can’t park or lock your bicycles there.
“It says nothing about not parking your bike on the ramp,” said Mary Lou Comber of Cape May. “It says no bike riding so we don’t ride our bikes.”
Cape May City Manager Bruce Macleod said some bikes posed a public safety hazard because they were chained to signs and park benches while some handle bars blocked entrance ramps to the promenade. Macleod admits however the ordinance isn’t always enforced.
“When I spotted the bikes attached to the park bench maybe that’s the thing that got my attention,” Macleod said.
Comber told NBC10 her daughter, who is handicapped, as well as her son-in-law had their bikes confiscated after they fastened them to a promenade rail.
“That’s just ridiculous,” Comber said. “He left kids stranded, he took the lifeguards’ bicycles, the beach workers’, the Steger boys’. Anyone that was there, snap, snap, snap!”
Macleod meanwhile insists that the ordinance is a fair one.
“I don’t apologize for the city taking some action to remove bikes that are attached to a park bench or railing that supports access to the promenade,” he said.
Comber says her daughter and son-in-law plan to fight the $100 summons during a court appearance on September 16.
“The fine is $100 for each bike,’ Comber said. “That’s enough, isn’t it? For an un-posted law.”
