Non-non-motorized

E-bikes, scooters and similar forms of 21st-century transport weren’t part of anyone’s plan for “non-motorized trails” 20 years ago, but they’re now a fact of life to which trail users have to adapt. (We’re still waiting for hoverboards, but it probably won’t be long now.)

Michigan law doesn’t prohibit electric scooters on linear trails. The same is true for most e-bikes.

More cyclists than ever are relying on the power boost they get from e-bikes to keep them in the saddle in the face of age or disability. Users of electric skateboards and scooters are gliding off the hot, mean streets and onto the cool, not-so-mean trails, just for the fun of it.

State and local authorities’ response to this unforeseen technological turn is that it’s almost all good.

“Municipalities need to opt out of allowing them, and we have not,” Lansing parks director Brett Kaschinske said.

Denny’s Central Park Bicycles in Okemos encourages test rides on e-bikes.

Raymond Holt

The types of e-bikes permitted are Class 1, which can be motor-assisted up to 20 miles per hour when pedaling, and Class 2, which can also have a throttle to engage the motor without pedaling.

Class 3 e-bikes, which can be motor-assisted up to 28 miles per hour when pedaling, are prohibited from linear trails.

Does the term “non-motorized trail” mean anything anymore?

The state’s vehicle code is clear on what it doesn’t mean: “Motor vehicle does not include an electric bicycle. Motor vehicle does not include an electric skateboard.” Scooters are regulated under the code as “electric skateboards with handlebars.”

Mike Smith, Transportation Alternatives Program manager for the Michigan Department of Transportation, put it this way in an email: “Under Michigan law, Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes are considered ‘non-motorized.’ Class 3 is considered ‘motorized.’ The law requires that Class 1 must be allowed at all times, regardless of funding source (of a trail), statewide. Class 2 may be allowed if a local agency chooses to allow it. If they have accepted federal funds at any time in a trail’s history, Class 2 may be required to be allowed.”

Kaschinske welcomes new transport devices and the trail users they bring.

“I know people who wouldn’t be on a bike if they didn’t have an e-bike,” Kaschinske said. “Our mission is to get people out into parks and recreation services, and one of the ways they do that is on e-bikes.”

Whether trail users are riding conventional bikes, e-bikes or scooters, the key is to recognize that not all segments of the trail are equal.

“When you’re along the Consumers Energy line and you have very good sight lines, anybody can open it up more,” he said. (The River Trail’s southside connector, running roughly parallel to Jolly Road along a utility corridor, is a good example.)

“In the downtown area, or around some of these curves and bends, you don’t have that,” Kaschinske cautioned. “You need to be aware of where you are and what your sight lines are.”

When angered trail users complain about being buzzed by e-bikes and scooters, e-bike users often respond that hardcore conventional bikers are just as liable to silently zoom by at up to 20 miles per hour.

Denny’s Central Park Bicycles in Okemos encourages test rides on e-bikes.

Raymond Holt

A posted 15-mile-per-hour speed limit for any vehicle, powered or not, is favored by Tim Potter, the sustainable transportation manager at Michigan State University’s Bikes Service Center.

“Cyclists shouldn’t be using the River Trail as a training road, either,” Potter said. “If everybody uses common sense, we can keep the trail safe for the average user.”

Kaschinske said a speed limit “has been discussed,” but the question is still open.

“You need to enforce a rule once it’s been established,” Kaschinske said. “Is it something we’d have the Lansing Police Department on? I think communities, and police, would be going more toward education: ‘You’re moving too fast.’ That’s the main thing we want to get across, rather than a punitive situation.”

It’s a statewide issue, as Kaschinske knows from his work on the trails committee of the Michigan Recreation and Park Association.

“This comes up in everybody’s jurisdiction,” he said.

For now, reconciling the different styles of users comes down to a few simple rules and practices.

 “Whether it’s an e-bike or a pedal bike, you need to be on the right side of the River Trail, you need to be in control of what you’re operating, you need to alert people when you’re passing, and you need to make sure you don’t have devices in your ears that are preventing you from hearing a call that they’re passing on the left,” Kaschinske said.