Avoid a ticket this Memorial Day weekend with these bike fest & traffic laws
With bikers and spectators visiting for the Atlantic Beach Memorial Day Black Pearl Cultural Heritage and Bike Festival, tourists kicking off summer at the beach and locals celebrating the long weekend, Memorial Day always brings one of the busiest weekends in the Grand Strand.
For Grand Stranders and visitors alike, it’s important to know these local laws to avoid a ticket this holiday weekend.
North Myrtle Beach laws
This Memorial Day weekend will be the first Atlantic Beach bike festival with North Myrtle Beach’s new nuisance party ordinance. The ordinance allows emergency responders and law enforcement officers to shut down parties determined to be nuisances and address obstructions.
The new rule identifies nuisance parties as gatherings that create a disturbance or safety concern. Some potential issues are common unlawful issues, like public urination or defecation, illegal open containers of alcohol, illegal sale or consumption of alcohol, illegal substance use and public indecency. Other inconveniences include excessive noise, unlawful littering and property damage without the owner’s consent. If a party is determined to be a nuisance, it must cease immediately and everyone who doesn’t reside at the premises must leave.
The ordinance also addresses pedestrian and vehicular obstructions like parked vehicles that impede traffic flow or emergency access. When a responder or officer identifies an obstruction, the person responsible must immediately cease, remove or relocate it.
In recent weeks, North Myrtle Beach has been vigilant in its crackdown on rowdy behavior. On May 3, at least a dozen young adults were arrested on charges related to drug possession or open containers of alcohol. At the time, North Myrtle Beach Police Department spokesperson Desirae Gostlin said it was unclear if the arrests were made in connection to a party.
The NMBPD is also targeting disorderly conduct and excessive noise. The manager of Sky Bar on Main Street was charged for violating a noise ordinance on the city’s books since 2021, and NMBPD reported multiple disturbances and assaults in an area prominently featuring bars on the same road during the Myrtle Beach Spring Bike Rally.
“Violence, disorderly conduct, and assaultive behavior will not be tolerated in our city,” the department shared on social media.
Myrtle Beach laws
In the neighboring jurisdiction, Myrtle Beach is also preparing for bikers and Memorial Day weekend crowds. Like North Myrtle Beach, the city has an ordinance prohibiting excessive noise, and it explicitly calls out rapid acceleration, rapid deceleration and burn-outs.
Myrtle Beach also enforces a curfew for unaccompanied minors. Those under the age of 17 can’t be out around the city without a parent or guardian from midnight to 6 a.m.
In the city’s downtown area, curfew starts earlier at 9 p.m. The Downtown District stretches east of Kings Highway from Sixth Avenue South to 21st Avenue North, as well as a small extension of west Kings Highway to Broadway Street from Seventh Avenue North to Ninth Avenues North.
Although Myrtle Beach eliminated routine traffic flushing on Ocean Boulevard, the city will implement such a plan for Memorial Day weekend, running from 6 a.m. on Friday, May 22, through 6 p.m. on Monday, May 25.
Motor traffic will be limited to southbound lanes on Ocean Boulevard between 29th Avenue North through South Kings Highway. Chester Street, Withers Drive and Yaupon Drive will be closed to cut-through traffic, but drivers will be able to access Ocean Boulevard to go southbound along Kings Highway at:
- 21st Avenue North
- Mr. Joe White Avenue
- 9th Avenue North
- 3rd Avenue South
- 9th Avenue South
- 13th Avenue South
- 19th Avenue South
- 25th Avenue South
- 29th Avenue South
South Carolina laws
There are also several road laws to remember on the state level. Although South Carolina law allows most riders on motorcycles and trikes to forgo protection, those under 21 years of age must wear Department of Public Safety-approved helmets and eye covers, like goggles or face shields.
Bikers in South Carolina are entitled to use a full traffic lane, but a rider on a motorcycle can share the lane with one other bike, if they choose. They can’t, however, split lanes. State law only permits police officers performing official duties to drive between traffic lanes or weave between cars.
South Carolina also allows riders to run red lights, but only under specific circumstances. Because some traffic lights use weight sensors that aren’t sensitive enough to register small vehicles, South Carolina allows motorcycle and moped riders yielding to oncoming traffic to proceed through steady red lights after coming to a complete stop for two minutes and determining it’s safe to proceed.