CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Ordinance and Rules Committee of the City of Charleston has decided to hold off on taking any action on a bill to amend municipal code to update requirements and penalties relating to pedestrians, bicycle riders and motorized vehicles in the city.
Bill 8030 would increase penalties for certain traffic violations for those operating motorized vehicles and create new penalties for violations of the traffic ordinance by a person not operating a motorized vehicle. Fine amounts would be increased and get larger based on each offense.
“The potential fines for violation of the traffic ordinance for drivers are increased so this bill would make it $100 to $500 for a first offense,” said City Attorney Kevin Baker.
A second offense would be altered with a fine of up to $200 to $1,000 with a third offense ranging from $500 to $1,500. There would also be jail time issued with 10 days set for a first offense and the amount of time going up by 10 days for each offense after.
“The jail time associated with each of those offenses is unchanged in this bill,” Baker said.
The bill also creates a separate offense for pedestrians who violate the traffic ordinance. Any offense for those not operating a motorized vehicle would not result in jail time but would include possible fines.
The committee met and discussed the bill last week. Ultimately, they decided to move further discussion on it to a later meeting in order to get the fines and jail time numbers to be more consistent before a vote is had. The bill was delayed until at least the next council meeting which is scheduled for Monday, April 15.
Council member Emmett Pepper said the idea with the bill was to take a look at possibly updating the municipal code in advance of the USA cycling event coming to the city next month.
“I thought it would be appropriate to look at our code in advance of the folks coming in next month,” said Pepper.