Proposed mo-ped, golf cart, scooter law to add new regulations, fees to local rental agencies

A proposed ordinance that aims to add new regulations and fines to businesses that rent out mo-peds, scooters and golf carts in Myrtle Beach will soon be back on the table for discussion.

The law was aimed at curbing a “proliferation” of the slow-moving conveyances that complicate traffic woes city leaders say are especially pronounced during Memorial Day weekend.

As tourism continues to grow, we have to do something to protect our visitors and residents, Mayor John Rhodes said last week.

But some rental shop professionals see the proposed ordinance as an attack on businesses that will ultimately hurt tourism or fail.

They try to pass regulations on mo-peds every year, said David “Disco” Holland of Rent Me Superstore at 106 N. Kings Hwy. “They made us wear helmets one year and that was illegal. They had to pay all them tickets back. They superseded the state law.”

Holland said he suspects this will turn into another legislation that ends up being challenged in court.

The 32-page proposed law was presented to Myrtle Beach City Council during a workshop Jan. 12. Discussion of the matter ended with a vote to table the issue until the city had a chance to first meet with affected businesses and then see if neighboring municipalities and the county would adopt similar ordinances.

City leaders admit the proposed legislation may not solve the problem of slow vehicles posing dangers on clogged roads, but adding extra restrictions to who can rent and how they can rent could result in fewer rides on the road.

City leaders were also waiting to see what would happen to a state bill that would require mo-peds to be registered, insured and off-limits to anyone with a suspended license. A provision to ban mo-peds from traveling on roads with speed limits greater than 35 mph was stripped from the bill that passed the state House in a 67-41 vote Jan. 13.

It was sent to the Senate a day later. The slightly-tweaked bill that takes another look at a House-approved requirement for mo-peds to have continually flashing rear red lights passed the Senate transportation subcommittee favorably. It is set to move to the full Senate Transportation Committee March 2.

If the bill becomes law, it would supersede any local ordinance, according to Reba Campbell, deputy executive director of the Municipal Association of South Carolina.

But with the bill still in the Senate and the Atlantic Beach Bikefest, which attracts an overwhelming amount of two-wheeled enthusiasts to the area, just around the corner – city leaders say they want to have something in place by May.

“We have not gone any further with this as we were waiting to see if there was any more movement in the legislature on this issue,” City Manager John Pedersen said on Wednesday. “Since there has not been any movement that we can see, we are going to go forward with the meetings that we originally discussed.”

Last week, Pedersen emailed business owners, who rent mo-peds and golf carts, with a copy of the city’s suggested legislation. He invited them to a meeting to review the proposed ordinance at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

Registration fees

The legislation would require rental agencies to inspect, insure and register each mo-ped, golf cart, scooter and motorcycle with the city’s police department. Owners would have to prove ownership and swear that each vehicle complies with all equipment and operational limitations outlined in state or local law.

Owners would also be required to register each vehicle at a cost of $50 for the device’s first year in service and $25 for each following year to receive a decal that would permit the vehicle’s operation inside city limits.

Holland estimated the company he works for had about 400 vehicles from mo-peds to scooters to golf carts on the road over the Memorial holiday last May. The first-year registration fees for the conveyances would add up to $20,000.

Anita Stanley, general manager of Go Fast Scooters at 609 S. Kings Hwy., said she suspects the proposed ordinance would hurt businesses that would then be forced to raise prices to make up for the losses, ultimately hurting the consumers and tourists they serve.

“I can’t see having to pay double fees. You’re going to lose a lot of people. It’s bad enough everybody’s fretting over having to pay the registration and having their mo-ped licensed (through the state bill) and on top of it Myrtle Beach wants to implement their own (regulations)? No. It is crazy. It’s just crazy,” she said.

Those who privately own and operate mo-peds or scooters inside the city limit would not be required to register their devices under the proposed ordinance. Registration and decals would only apply to rental agencies.

The local legislation would also ban golf carts being rented after dark.

City attorney Thomas Ellenburg, who crafted the legislation, said the provision was added to help enforce a state law that forbids a golf cart’s use on public roadways from sunset to sunrise. When the law was rewritten by the General Assembly, however, the new legislation left out the penalty provision, he said, making it hard for the law to be enforced beyond officers telling nighttime operators to go home.

The proposed ordinance would set violations as misdemeanors. Rental shop owners who fail to comply with regulations could also be charged with misdemeanors, face fines and possible jail time and lose their license to operate in the city.

When golf carts started popping up along the 23-mile traffic loop imposed between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. last Memorial Day weekend, leaders said they knew they had a problem.

“The purpose of this law is to basically bring some order out of chaos,” Ellenburg said. “The traffic management issue in May was one of the first reasons why I was asked to really get into this and lay it out in a way where it worked. … This was particularly critical during May events when we just had a proliferation of golf carts zooming up and down every which way well into nighttime.”

Legal standing?

Holland said the provision requiring each mo-ped to be covered by insurance is not something currently required by state law, though it could be under the pending bill.

“A mo-ped is not a registered vehicle,” he said. “We don’t have to insure them. We have company insurance, but as far as insuring every one of them, singly? No. That’s not required by law. Until it’s a registered vehicle they cannot make us insure them.”

A state registration requirement for mo-peds is included in the bill still pending in the Senate.

Rent Me Superstore operates out of six locations in Myrtle Beach and Holland says he doesn’t think the ordinance would ultimately hurt their operations.

He said he suspects the ones this law will really target are the rental agencies that “pop up in the beginning of summer and then about two months later … (they) fold.”

“I think what they’re trying to do is weed out the people who just come in, fly-by-night and they’re gone and they rent dangerous stuff,” he said. “It ain’t going to hurt our business a bit. Any time Myrtle Beach tries to supersede a state law, they fail. We do business as we always have and if they want to come in here and give us all kinds of fines, they’re going to end up paying us the money back just like the helmet law.”

Councilman Mike Lowder had questions about the proposed ordinance’s legal standing as well.

The city council enacted a law in 2006 that required all operators and passengers on mo-peds, scooters and motorcycles over the age of 21 to wear helmets. The law was later struck down by the South Carolina Supreme Court when it was found to have superseded the state law.

“I just see some of this same thing could possibly be happening with this particular ordinance in itself to some extent,” Lowder said.

Ellenburg told the council that the majority of what the local ordinance would do is regulate businesses, which state law allows municipalities to do.

“We are allowed to regulate the operation of a business as long as we don’t contradict a state law,” he said. “The state law is silent as to the business regulation. You can’t contradict when there has been a statement (of law) and when there is silence, you can have no contradiction.”

Ellenburg told the council Jan. 12 that when he started to research state laws regarding mo-peds, scooters, golf carts and low-speed vehicles, he found a disjointed maze of state regulations that may create confusion.

“It appeared to me that the rental of it was the way to go, where we shift the burden of education and warning from some generalized almost mythical application of state law and put it in a local law,” he said. “And we tell the people who rent these devices … what they must do in order to rent.”

Ellenburg admitted that the legislation would not be “a problem solver. What this does is create forces which begin to suppress and solve the problem,” he said. “I don’t think you can eradicate it. … I think you’re always going to have the rogue operator. I think you’re always going to have the rogue business person who just wants to put a piece of machine out there and is willing to lie about its mechanical operational ability.

“But I think if we go through this process, the education process and begin perhaps an enforcement phase that you will see some lessening (of the problem), if you will,” Ellenburg said. “And it may be a significant lessening.”

This story was originally published February 22, 2016 at 6:07 PM with the headline "Proposed mo-ped, golf cart, scooter law to add new regulations, fees to local rental agencies."