Electric assist bicycles should be allowed on bicycle trails. Electric assist bicycles should not be allowed on bicycle trails. Another issue to divide folks.
I have seen a mother, with her three year old child on the bicycle, riding with her husband and friends. She was on the family's electric assist Yuba bicycle. It seemed perfectly ok for her to be riding on the trail. She was, to the best of her ability, pedaling for fitness. It was better, for the entire family, to be together while enjoying the benefits of bicycling. If no one had told you, there would be few clues that the bicycle was assisted by a small electric motor. There is very little weight difference with an electric assisted bicycle, so it should not deteriorate the trail any faster than unassisted bicycles.
Government officials in our town have had trouble with motor scooters and mopeds. There have been several very inconsiderate operators of these vehicles. They violate more than a few traffic laws. It would be unfortunate if the electric assist bicycle was lumped with these vehicles and operators; then forced to obtain inspections, operators licenses, and registration plates. Certainly it would be plausible for similar laws, applicable to all of these vehicles, to be created and enforced. Government would easily see it as a source of revenue and might even believe the safety of the community would be improved.
Attitudes and actions of bicycle riders should be considered. Most bicycle trail users I have seen are very aware of others using the trail. Slowing down before passing, announcing their presence, and being generally considerate of others are the common practices. As with any group of people, there will be some who are inconsiderate and abuse those they encounter. It would be unfortunate if the electric assisted bicycle riders were to be penalized because of the actions of a minority.
This issue will come up across the country because of all the existing signs posted that say "no motorized vehicles". There was an intent to be bike-friendly in many cases, but electric-assist bikes hadn't been considered at that time.
ReplyDeleteI see a couple of ways to reasonably regulate electric-assist bikes on bike paths and multi-use trails:
* Set a speed limit. This would be all bikes and not just electric assist. The speed limit should conditional, such that you are required to slow down to pass or when there are other people, but you can what you wish when you have the trail to yourself.
* Having a requirement to be pedaling. That's excludes scooters and people who are riding electric assist bikes as if they are scooters.
However, my hope would be that detailed regulations would not be required, and electric assisted cyclists can have a chance to show that they can behave reasonably on trails without additional bureaucracy.