Trails Council Forms E-Bike Safety Committee

In response to the growing number of electric vehicles on our recreational trails, Top of Michigan Trails Council has convened an e-bike safety committee to study the problem.

As anyone who uses the local paved trails knows, a broad range of e-powered vehicles are often present. And if the sheer number of e-vehicles isn’t concerning enough, some trail user conduct is alarmingly unsafe.

We don’t have a firm count, but we know several speed-related e-bike accidents have occurred, some resulting in serious injury. Reports of near-misses with e-vehicle riders are also frequent.

The Trails Council has received numerous complaints about trail user conduct in the last three years as personal e-powered devices exploded in popularity. That said, we do recognize that e-bikes enable a new realm of outdoor recreation for people who might not otherwise be able to do it.

The Trails Council aims to balance these revolutionary devices with a healthy dose of common sense. To that end, we formed our e-bike safety committee, members of which include John and Deb Rohe, Trails Council Safety & Maintenance Director Bill Prall, Cameron Tschupp, Jane Stewart, Petoskey City Councilman Charlie Willmott, and Trails Council Communications Manager Eric Cox.

The committee has been meeting for a few months, trying to identify the best approach to improving trail user safety. They’ve studied the issue thoroughly, communicating with other communities and organizations facing similar issues.

Though they’re still working out the details, the committee has settled on a strategy recently developed and deployed by the City of Marquette. Marquette’s method focuses on trail user behavior, rather than trying to police all the various e-vehicle types. Marquette did, however, enact an e-moto ban on all town streets, sidewalks, and recreational trails.

Marquette’s behavior-focused approach keys on public education, speed limit signage, trail markings that include center lining, and increased law enforcement participation that includes citations.

Officials in Marquette and Traverse City said their local police departments’ bike patrols have grown to include more bike-mounted officers patrolling city streets and trails.

According to a recent report in The Boyne Citizen, e-bike incidents are occurring on their trails, too, with one user reporting a group of youths on e-bikes riding fast and recklessly.

“The laws have not caught up with everything that’s available,” Boyne City Police Chief Dan Mercer told The Boyne Citizen, referring to the wide range of e-vehicles consumers can buy as opposed to the laws that govern them.

If you witness unsafe trail behavior or want to report trail conditions, feel free to use our new trail incident reporting tool.