Why electric bikes aren't always welcome on Michigan's trails

The growing popularity of "e-bikes" is spawning a debate over whether the electric two-wheelers should be allowed on Michigan's growing web of woodland paths and urban bikeways.

While e-bikes are catching on with many aging Americans, some trail buffs and park bosses want to put the brakes on their use on the hundreds of miles of trails that have been traditionally designated as non-motorized.

They are at odds with e-bike users over whether these new machines — some of which can reach speeds of up to 28 m.p.h. — should share space with traditional hikers, bikers and joggers, as well as with horseback riders whose mounts are notoriously easy to spook.

Priced anywhere from $500 to $5,000, e-bikes look like ordinary bikes. But these high-tech machines have hidden microchips, advanced batteries and tiny electric motors that give a boost to the pedaling rider and on some models take over completely.

In Detroit, and across the state, e-bike riders can roll on public roads just like ordinary bicycles, and with helmets optional. But they are finding they are not always welcome on recreational trails here and elsewhere.

The debate over their use is about to get louder with summer beckoning and people heading outside in droves to walk, jog or bike on the growing web of woodland paths and urban bikeways, whether it's Detroit's Dequindre Cut or the the 17-mile Polly Ann Trail in northern Oakland County.

“At first, I was opposed — I said this is a slippery slope,” said Linda Moran, manager of the Polly Ann Trail, about e-bikes.

Moran said she's spent years confronting trail intruders jouncing along on noisy gasoline-powered motorbikes and all-terrain vehicles. A few years ago, she tried to stop one ATV driver, only to have the man — later charged with assault — grab for Moran’s cell phone, which she refused to yield, then yank her off her feet and drive off with her briefly sprawled across his machine.

Despite that memory and others, the virtues of e-bikes won her over, Moran said. Early this year, the Polly Ann Trail's governing board of township and village officials announced that e-bikes were welcome, with the faster models subject to Moran's personal OK on a case-by-case basis.

“They’re quiet, they don’t go fast, and for older people, they let anyone get out on the trail,” she said.

Although die-hard cyclists disparage electric two-wheelers as “cheater bikes,” e-bikes are bound to be a hit with the nation’s bulge of aging Baby Boomers and with anyone limited by a disability, Moran predicts.

Fans of electric bikes say they offer mobility, access to nature and a modicum of exercise for seniors and those who have disabilities, including low lung capacity (such as asthma sufferers). The new machines also give a welcome assist to otherwise fit cyclists who happen to be towing a buggy loaded with kids or groceries, especially on hilly terrain.

And they’re a pollution-free alternative to driving a car — not to mention, far cheaper to operate, at about $400 a year for battery charges, versus the average annual cost of nearly $9,000 to operate a new passenger vehicle, according to e-bike manufacturers and AAA.

The advantages have sent e-bike sales soaring and made them wildly popular in warm climates, according to the Bicycling.com website. But the odd niche they occupy means that state and local authorities nationwide are still deciding where they fit in.

In Michigan, a new state law classifies e-bikes, paradoxically, as non-motorized vehicles. As of Jan. 28, they're rated the same as ordinary bikes for traffic enforcement. Not so on Michigan's bike paths and nature trails. The new law gives trail managers and oversight boards a choice: They can stand back and let the newbies glide alongside regular hikers and bikers, and even horseback riders. Or they can hold public hearings to let community users weigh in, then vote.

At a meeting in April in northern Oakland County, board members of the 9-mile Paint Creek Trail — connecting Rochester with Lake Orion — heard from skeptical trail buffs. Some said e-bikes were too speedy to be compatible with walkers and joggers on the 8-foot-wide path. Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes, with motors of up to 1-horsepower, can reach 20 m.p.h. Others said that e-bikes just shouldn't be rolling alongside non-motorized trail users, and to heck with the new state law that says a motorized bike isn't, well, motorized.

When debate ended, the board voted 4-2 to allow Class 1 e-bikes, the type that work only when a rider is pedaling. The board also decided to allow Class 2 e-bikes, which don’t require pedaling and instead roll with continuous e-power.

Those votes made sense if e-bikers will be considerate of others, trail manager Kristen Myers said.

“We just ask them to observe the same rules as our regular cyclists — stay to the right, pass on the left and announce verbally or with a bell that you’re passing,” she said. Not to mention, they must yield to horses, Myers added,

As for Class 3 e-bikes, with their higher top speed of 28 m.p.h.? The board voted to keep them off the Paint Creek Trail.

On Detroit's bikeways, like the two-mile-long Dequindre Cut that links the Detroit River to Eastern Market, only the Class 1 e-bikes are allowed — at least so far, according to the website of Detroit Greenways Coalition.

In much of Macomb County, trail and park officials have yet to hold hearings, so e-bikes have an untested legal status, said Gregory Krzeminski, who sells a popular brand of e-bikes at his Pedago Junction shop in Harrison Township.

“I like that Paint Creek is setting the precedent for a lot of other trails,” Krzeminski said. Under the new state law, Class 1 e-bikes are automatically allowed unless a trail’s board of directors or a park’s governing group votes otherwise. For the Class 2 and 3 e-bikes, the law says it’s just the reverse: They’re verboten unless trail bosses or park overseers “opt in” to allow them.

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In Macomb County, that means that Class 2 riders can glide on some trails while they await approval at others. At the entrance to Lake St. Clair Metropark, it’s currently a no-go for Class 2 and 3, Krzeminski said.

He hopes that will change soon because it’s a hardship for riders like Jay Hoopingarner, 58, of Clinton Township.

“I could not ride a traditional bike for 10 yards — my legs won’t do it,” said Hoopingarner, who says he has Parkinson’s Disease.

“This bike lets me get around,” he said, standing beside his silver-and-black Class 2 e-bike. Unlike the Class 1 type, pedaling is optional on his bike. He can cruise all afternoon without expending effort.

The debate about e-bikes calls into question the mission of what for decades have been called “non-motorized trails,” funded in large part by tax dollars, with additional support from foundation grants, corporate gifts and in-kind donations such as free engineering designs. Is the mission of such trails to provide escape from civilization and its motors — including whisper-quiet electrics? Or is it to give access to nature for all, including seniors and those with disabilities who find walking or pedaling too strenuous?

Terry Kauzlarich would say it’s the latter. Kauzlarich said she’d ridden a conventional bike for years, until aging took a toll.

“Now I have spinal stenosis and heart problems,” said Kauzlarich, 59, of Memphis, west of Port Huron.

“I started reading about these e-bikes and my husband didn’t even know about them until I brought one home. It’s just enough of a boost that I can ride again. And he got one too,” she said.

Last winter, the couple hauled their e-bikes to Florida and rode all over Fort Myers, even when shopping for groceries.

In Michigan, she said, “There’s still some trails where we can’t go. We hope that changes."

Contact Bill Laitner: blaitner@freepress.com