Pitkin County commissioners and open space board members acknowledged this week they must reconsider policy on electric bikes sooner rather than later for prime riding ground like Sky Mountain Park, some of the Smuggler Mountain network and the popular Glassier Trail in the midvalley.
However, don’t expect a blanket policy on all trails and all properties, said Gary Tennenbaum, director of Pitkin County Open Space and Trails. The key, he said, will be to move slowly and coordinate with all the other public land management agencies that oversee trails in the region.
“It’s coming,” Tennenbaum said of the broader discussion. “It’s going to take time and it’s going to take a public process. It’s going to take some deliberations from all the boards to say ‘Where do you want to see that and where don’t you want to see that?’”
Coordination between multiple agencies is important because many trails travel across different jurisdictions or connect to networks with multiple ownership. Tennenbaum used Sky Mountain Park as an example: a rider can start at the Buttermilk parking lot on the city of Aspen’s Butterline Trail, transition onto the county-owned Airline Trail and then head into town of Snowmass Village territory on the lower elevations of the Deadline and Viewline trails. The U.S. Forest Service and the federal Bureau of Land Management also oversee numerous trails in the Roaring Fork Valley.
“If one agency opens it (to e-bikes) and another doesn’t, it’s an enforcement nightmare,” Tennenbaum told the commissioners and open space board members in a joint session Tuesday. “Right now we all have the same rules. The Forest Service is looking at changing some of their regulations in some of their places. The BLM is looking at changing some of their regulations on the Crown and so you’re going to see that come to you guys over time.”
Open space board member Amy Barrow said she would welcome the discussion.
“I would agree, the whole e-bike question is something that’s coming that we have to deal with and I would like to tackle it,” she said.
There’s been a significant push among some valley riders to allow class 1 e-bikes on singletrack trails. Those are also known as pedal-assist bikes where the small electric motor only operates when the rider is pedaling. There is no throttle and the maximum assisted speed is 20 mph.
There’s pushback among some traditionalists to keep e-bikes off dirt, singletrack trails. The Roaring Fork Mountain Bike Association has successfully tiptoed through the minefield of differing opinions and hasn’t made a big push one way or another. It has conducted a survey of riders on their preferences and said it will share results with public land managers.
The discussion on future e-bike policy came up Tuesday among Pitkin County officials because they were required to update accessibility policies to comply with U.S. Department Justice regulations related to the Americans with Disabilities Act. The DOJ released regulations in 2011 that defined differences between wheelchairs and “other power-driven mobility devices” and set criteria for determining where the “other devices” could be used. Pitkin County is undertaking one of its occasional updates to its policies to comply with the feds’ regulations.
In short, Pitkin County currently generally prohibits use of motorized vehicles on Pitkin County trails. “The proposed Other Power Driven Mobility Device Management Plan creates a special exception to this general rule for certain trail types, providing that the mobility device complies with (Open Space and Trail) regulations regarding the dimensions, weight, and design speed,” said a memo to the boards. “Anyone using a device not within those standards, and anyone without a mobility impairment using such devices, will be subject to penalties as otherwise provided in the Count Code.”
In other words, Tennenbaum said, the DOJ’s other device rules cannot be used to open up dirt singletrack trails on open space property for e-bike use for a person who has a disability or physical impairment. The only significant change will be opening the paved Rio Grande Trail to class 2 e-bikes. Class 1 e-bikes are already allowed on the Rio Grande. Class 2 e-bikes can use a throttle to engage the motor without pedaling. They also have a maximum speed of 20 mph.
“This doesn’t magically allow you to go on Sky Mountain Park,” Tennenbaum stressed. “(It) is still closed.”
Regarding class 1 e-bike use, Tennenbaum said the open space staff is conferring with peers at the city of Aspen and the town of Snowmass Village in preparation for management decisions somewhere down the road. Meanwhile, he noted, there are plenty of routes where e-bikes can be ridden. Examples are Smuggler Mountain Road, Richmond Ridge and parts of the Crown Mountain trail network where the BLM allows motorized uses.
“Currently there are a ton of places where you can use an e-bike,”he said. “Is it exactly what some of them want? No.”
There is no specific timetable when Pitkin County and upper valley municipalities will discuss e-bike policy on specific pieces of property and specific trails, but as Tennenbaum repeated numerous times, it’s coming and it must be an organized, thoughtful discussion.
“What we’ve learned is that some areas that have opened it all up at once would love to take that back and they can’t,” Tennenbaum said.
