E-bikes/Trails Policy Enforcement Issues
Fully Rigid, 7/27/24
On the trail in Laguna Mountain Recreation Area, San Diego County, Cleveland National Forest. Cross paths with a person wearing a National Forest Service cap, but not dressed in full ranger regalia. Pleasantries exchanged and I asked about e-bike policy. I literally got the following response:
I’m not a recreation ranger.
I will not say here what “kind” of ranger this person was because by doing so, I’d guess they’d be easily identified.
They did not want to make any statement, is the bottom line. Why?
Averted the subject at hand. Stated that the policy is on the web.
Official policy on e-bikes on the web for Laguna is: not permitted on trails, are permitted where motor vehicles go.
A person working for the federal government chose to not answer my questions about e-bikes and enforcement.
On trail, e-bikes are rolling.
At trailheads where most mountain bikers set out, you don’t see signs saying no e-bikes. If you look closely at the kiosk/board at the visitor center, you can find one.
What happens when official land use policy is not enforced?
I called the Descanso District ranger’s office in Alpine. I talked with a person on the phone. That person also did not want to make any official statement, it seemed. Clearly this person was not the same person I ran into on the trail, as a clarifying point.
Two different people working for the forest service not wanting to make a statement, up front. Why?
I pushed. They dodged. I asked more pointed questions.
Over the phone, they finally said, correct, e-bikes are not allowed on trails. When I stated that everyone knows that e-bikes are on the trails and that, personally, this isn’t about e-bikes on trails but rather, this is about federal land use policy not being enforced, they were silent. That if they are tacitly okay with e-bikes, then why not change the policy. I commented that policy enforcement is essential and that is has to be consistent.
No comment back.
Silence.
I prodded.
They then said e-bikes are not permitted on trails … yet.
Yet.
I’m guessing that it’s only a matter of time.
Let’s go a little farther down the trail on this one. What happens when mountain biking leadership, volunteer and/or paid staff, knows land use policy regarding e-bike non-access on trails and openly defies it? Think it doesn’t happen. You’re wrong. It does.
If you haven’t caught on yet, I’m not naming names because I’d rather not potentially mess up people’s lives, including my own.
Next to Laguna, we have Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. There, also, the official land use policy is no e-bikes on trails. E-bikes are on trails. There used to be no e-bikes signs at some kiosks/trailhead signs. They are gone.
I’ve emailed and called the state park ranger office. Never got an email or call back.
Still, no response.
Silence.
Why the non-responses? Why no signs indicating e-bikes are not allowed, according to actual policy? Why no enforcement?
And I’ll say it again, when mountain biking leadership/decision-makers ride e-bikes on trails they know they should not be on, whose interests are they best representing? What messages are they sending?
This is an open call to IMBA to remind mountain biking leadership to not ride e-bikes on trails where they are not permitted. Also, IMBA should further advocate for land managers to actually enforce land use policies to prevent e-bikers from wrongfully accessing trails. The future of mountain biking depends it.
And there’s this breaking news from Park City … an overwhelming majority of local mountain bikers don’t want e-bikers on the trails, but it seems like, even with the complexity of trail access in the area, things will move forward in granting additional e-bike access. Why? If people don’t want it, why make it happen? Who really wants e-bikes on trails?
Fully Rigid is a monthly column by James Murren about Mountain Biking Issues within the Mountain Biking Community.
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What is the saying, follow the money?
There is way too much $$ in the E bike industry, that is the main reason they are slowly being allowed in more and more places.
E-bikes aren't going away. I'm an old dude. Mountain bike purity demands we challenge ourselves on the climbs right? I dunno, I see folks on E-bikes here getting out on the trails and getting stoked. I'm for that.