Naperville Moves Forward With Downtown Pedal Pub Ban

NAPERVILLE, IL — Naperville residents may not end up seeing party bikes rolling down the downtown streets as some entrepreneurs have hoped. On Tuesday, the city council voted in favor of banning party bikes on main roads in Naperville, citing potential traffic problems and a negative impact on the city's family-friendly atmosphere.

To make a ban official, city council would have to adopt an ordinance, which is currently in the works, according to a report from Daily Herald.

The city council has debated the party bike issue since November, when officials denied O'Brien's Pedal Pub a requested BYOB liquor license to operate in Naperville. After the denial, owners of O'Brien's Pedal Pub switched gears and proposed a different idea: to ferry customers from bar to bar throughout Naperville without serving alcohol on the bike.

This proposal spurred several other pedal pub operators to eye Naperville as a potential site to operate, but the majority of council members remain opposed to the idea of pedal pubs downtown in general. Tuesday's 5-3 vote saw council members Becky Anderson, Kevin Coyne, and Patty Gustin voting against the downtown ban, Daily Herald reports.

The opposition from Coyne, Anderson, and Gustin hinged on the fact that the ban was only partial and would not fully prohibit party bikes from operating in the city.

Coyne said he doesn't view Naperville as a "major bar scene" and fears that party bikes may "create that type of atmosphere."

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