OC BikeFest Kept OCPD Busy Over the Weekend

Reading through comments in Facebook over the weekend, many people feel that this was the most crowded and most problematic BikeFest ever in Ocean City. Many people were asking why the Special Event Zone that is seen with other vehicle events was not put in place during BikeFest. Ocean City Police spokeswoman Ashley Miller tells the Talk of Delmarva that, “While OC BikeFest does bring some traffic, it does not bring the heavy pedestrian flow and crowding to the sidewalks like the motor events do. The draw of spectators on the sidewalks is one of the factors needed for the special event zone.”

Police were also more forthcoming with information on social media. There were multiple reported thefts of motorcycles over the weekend and police advised bikers to lock the steering columns of their bikes – on certain bikes if the steering column isn’t locked – they can be started by anyone! Miller said that they (OCPD), “..tend to have a couple of motorcycles stolen each year. I don’t know if this was more or not. We have taken a more proactive approach on putting things on social media.”

BikeFest was officially set up at the Inlet parking lot as well as at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center.  However there were also vendors set up in parking lots throughout town – including at 45th Street and 94th Street and plenty of motorcycles on Coastal Highway in town – as well as all roads leading out of town on Sunday for those who were headed home.  

Looking at the OCPD Daily Bulletin, there were multiple arrests or citations for vehicle crashes, drugs, weapons, DUI, theft, trespass, traffic charges, assault and outstanding warrants throughout the weekend. As for the number of crashes or arrests in regards to past BikeFest events – that will not be known until the department’s Crime Analyst has time to crunch the numbers.