SPARE CHANGE: As Newport examines e-bikes, cyclists in the city could learn a thing or two

While cringing each time the Matt Brown/Cynthia Mendes dance ad shows up on TV:

• Bari Freeman is right. Newport needs to update its ordinances to clearly define how e-bikes fit in with the current rules.

E-bikes, partially motorized bicycles, are here to stay. The city is grappling with how to classify them — bicycle or motorcycle?

I’d side with bicycle.

The drawback to the proliferation of e-bikes is they become one more vehicle on Newport streets. And, like some bicyclists, e-bike operators neither know nor care about existing laws.

In the 1990s, I biked all over town. I learned bicycles are subject to the same rules as cars and motorcycles.

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You stop at red lights and stop signs. You give pedestrians the right of way at crosswalks, stay off the sidewalks, follow one-way signs, and you ride single file.

And always wear a helmet, lest you crash and end up talking like Pebbles Flintstone.

Bike Newport has worked hard to educate cyclists on local biking etiquette. Sadly, cyclists break these rules with abandon, especially on America’s Cup Avenue and lower Thames Street.

Let the city find a realistic classification for e-bikes. And let’s hope this new breed of cyclists is better at following the law than the current crop.

• One of the most amusing vehicle disputes I can recall took place in the 1990s.

A weekender from New York was cited for roller-blading in the street. He argued the blades were a vehicle, not a toy.

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He made a solid and totally obnoxious argument. Then-Municipal Court Judge Christopher Behan ruled in the guy’s favor.

But he added something along the lines of … go take your self-righteousness somewhere else.

A perfect courtroom moment.

• When I see those FBI shows pop up on the screen, I half-expect Efrem Zimbalist Jr. to turn up.

• R.I.P.: John Erik Nelson, age 56.

This friendly, funny guy was all over town, running his own landscaping business.

Or maybe you went to Middletown High School with him or knew him from the Ancient Order of Hibernians Pipes and Drums Corps or the Newport County YMCA.

John Erik was full of energy, working late, tooling around town in his Austin Healey. His obituary said he died in his sleep from a stroke.

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Not the worst way to go, true, but way too soon for a man of such vitality.

• NIMfest continues to be one of the best entertainment events in town.

Last Sunday, Cee Cee and the Riders — led by singer supreme Leslie Bruneau and guitarist/husband Matt Bruneau — powered their way through a terrific afternoon of Chicago blues, Southern blues, 1950s rock ‘n’ roll with a dash of rockabilly tossed in.

It felt 10 degrees cooler by the water at King Park than in town. Congratulations to Kevin and Gianna Sullivan for making this series work summer after summer.

• A less pleasant musical event was Woodstock '99, a second failed attempt to recreate the magic of the original Woodstock in 1969.

The documentary “Train Wreck” is currently streaming on Netflix. It shows how greed, price-gouging, cutting corners and excessive testosterone led to a raging crowd setting the site on fire and sexually assaulting women.

Not so groovy.

• A belated R.I.P.: Lorraine Going

• Don’t bother stuffing my Christmas stocking with “Breaking History,” a hooray-for-me memoir by Jared Kushner. In The New York Times, Dwight Garner wrote: “Kushner looks like a mannequin and writes like one.”

But how did you like the book, Dwight?

Jim Gillis is a Daily News columnist. Send him email at jimgillis13@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: SPARE CHANGE: Cyclists in Newport RI could learn a thing or two