Marco Man’s Video Shines Light on Island’s E-Bikes & Pathways

Marco Island’s Tom Hornstein is a Marine. He's just not active duty anymore. He lives the Marines' leadership principles every day. His latest mission - albeit a civilian one - is to look out for the welfare of the island’s e-bike riders. 

"Tom 1.0 was military Tom in the Marine Corps,” Hornstein said from his pool deck. "Tom 2.0 was corporate Tom. Tom 3.0 gets to be whatever he wants to be. I like to create digital videos because it helps my creativity. Plus, I love technology. I'm 58, and I still have a responsibility to keep up on technology.” 

Hornstein, an avid e-bike rider on the island’s comprehensive system of shared-use paths, is concerned about the safety on those pathways. 

“We specifically built our house on a shared-use path because I wanted easy access,” Hornstein said. "I started my YouTube channel on the basis of helping people learn about e-bikes, specifically older people.” 

Hornstein likes the fact that older riders can still enjoy the thrill of bicycling on an e-bike. 

"They thought they were too old,” Hornstein said, “or they had an injury that was keeping them from doing it. But e-bikes open that up again. It makes them feel like kids again. I get a lot of emails and messages from older people that say, ‘You know, you extended my bike riding by five or 10 more years.' I love this. They imagine the possibilities. So that's what I do. I incorporate that into my YouTube channel. I like to do civic things as well. I've been involved in some e-bike advocacy back where I came from because that was an issue in that city as well. I worked with the chief of police in order to come up with some ideas that were conducive to obtaining what the city wanted to obtain without intruding too much.” 

Hornstein’s video, Tips on How to be a Successful E-Biker on Marco Island, had almost 900 likes the first day it came out last week. 

“It came a little quick,” Hornstein said with a laugh, "but I knew when I was making it that this is an emotional topic. So that usually gets people's interest. And it may be popular right now because it's season, so the bike paths have more people on them, and you have more of those interactions with bikes and people and all that stuff. But guess what's going to happen next year? It's going to be the same situation, sort of rinse and repeat. So, I try to make a video that is useful next year as well. People are going to see it, they're going to look it up, and it'll take on what they call an evergreen life in that it's going to be relevant for years to come. It's not just going to be relevant for 2024.” 

Hornstein, who rides Marco’s shared-use paths frequently, has firm opinions about what needs to be done to make those paths safer. 

"I see the abuse on the bike path because I live on the bike path,” Hornstein said. “Somehow, we've got to educate the population here so that the e-bikes don't have such a target on their back. The only way that's going to happen is number one, you've got to address the speed." 

Hornstein feels a speed limit of 10-12 mph is reasonable. He also thinks an age limit should be considered. 

“You've got to address the age,” he said, "because a lot of e-bike manufacturers say 16 years or older. A lot of the offenders I see with speed are 16 years and younger. If I had to start somewhere, it would be with the young people. If there's nobody riding e-bikes in Marco Island under 16 years it would reduce the incidence by 30 or 40 percent. There's a young man that wears a full face helmet. His e-bike is one of the ones that is designed to look like a motocross enduro bike. He rides down this bike path 25-plus miles an hour and doesn't care. I would say he's 12. I really put the responsibility on the parents because, you know, these bikes cost at a minimum of $1,000. That motocross enduro bike probably costs $2,000 to $3,000. I can't believe there hasn't been an incident already.” 

Another user group Hornstein said needs to be looked at are the island workers who use their e-bikes to go to and from work. 

“They're a close second,” Hornstein said. “I'd say the most impactful you could be is if you regulated the youth on e-bikes and your second swoop would be the worker population, the people who use it for primary transportation. They're going somewhere intentionally. You can't put signs up everywhere. Then you get all that sign pollution. Although I've seen bike paths that have those little signs that tells you how fast you're going.” 

Hornstein is puzzled by the apparent lack of law enforcement when it comes to the island’s shared-use paths. I asked him what he would do if he was the island’s bike czar. 

“If I'm the bike czar,” Hornstein said, “the first concentration I would have would be on speed. I don't know how you enforce that. But I do know I can't ride anywhere on the island without passing five or six police cars. If I can see all these people abusing the bike paths like that, why can't they? Maybe they can't do anything about it. But then we have the code enforcement people. Maybe there's no codes against it? But there is a common sense cloud floating around. And if you're supposed to look out for public safety, maybe it doesn't have to be in a code in order for you to call somebody on it. Something has to be done to shut down the abusers." 

Hornstein thinks a speed limit would be a good first step. He says it’s not hard to tell when e-bikes are going too fast. 

“I think a 10 to 12 mile an hour speed limit is about the right zone,” Hornstein said. "If they're going 14-15, who cares? But when they're doing 20-25, I don't need a radar gun to see that that's unsafe. I know code enforcement and police see that - I know they see it because I see them everywhere. They are everywhere on this island. If I can see it, I know they see it. They could insert themselves into an unsafe situation like that every hour. I just haven't seen it happening.” 

The problem brings out Tom 1.0, the Marine. 

"I do have a really strong sense of right and wrong,” Hornstein said. "I'm not afraid to speak up for that. But I don't want to insert my opinion in too many places to where this is my life. I'm not going to die on that hill. I love Marco Island. I want to live here and create a life and all that stuff. So, I'm not going to die on the hill of e-bikes. I think there needs to be a discussion first. There would have to be some kind of official action taken or initiated by somebody at the city level. Some rules need to be implemented in order to make sure that all the participants on the shared-use path can live cohesively a little bit better than what they're doing now." 

Hornstein’s YouTube channel is evolutionary Tom.