Electric bike riding in U.S. National Parks is a contentious topic. Now the NPS wants to know what you think on whether they should be permanently banned?
I have health issues and hadn’t rode a bike in a while until I got a compact (and 250w) ebike not long ago, have rode 100 miles now. If trails are off the table I may as well sell/trade my ebike (if someone would still want it here) as the roads near me are not bike friendly (and I don’t even have a mirror). Not much around here, I made a 20-mile round-trip to the nearest tourist city and I definitely would not do that if I had to deal with cars+ditches+unshaded roads (especially as I lack cell service and thus mobile GPS for better routes).
Also I don’t seem to see very many people on the trail and have been passed by actual cyclists a few times.
If you haven’t, I strongly suggest making these comments in the NPS link. Environmental assessment processes really do care about things like the public actually being able to access the parks! Like most government processes they’re going to evaluate material submitted to them, not material found in random places on the internet.
I’d phrase it as “allowing eBikes lets me benefit parks like this and gives me these benefits” and not “otherwise I might sell my ebike” because they care about public benefit, not about whether or not you own an ebike.
I know and I’ve been thinking about it. I could write an essay about all the different aspects of this (including some stuff beyond the NPS like nuance of throttle and how it relates to classification) but also the question here seems to be a bit baseless at worst (or surron stigma etc), or maybe a “should we throw all ebikes under the bus because of road wear from the heaviest ones” that might give an overwhelming response in favor of ebikes (also because health issues etc).
Though I am surprised I haven’t seen other people (like Area 13 or other ebike YTers) cover it so maybe not.
