By Vicky Hoover and Jim Catlin • Recreation Issues Team
E-bikes—bicycles powered by electric motors—have rapidly gained popularity and seem to be all around us. With an e-bike, you can go faster, farther, and higher. E-bikes are claimed to “do everything you want but better.” They now share roads and trails with walkers, cars, buses, bicyclists, horses, and wildlife. They are great for urban transportation, but in off-road places e-bikes can lead to serious conflicts.
This rise of e-bikes challenged the Sierra Club to understand how to accommodate this new form of travel and still protect the environment and help people get out into nature. In the past year, Club volunteers and leaders have discussed how to address this new challenge. The Recreation Issues Sub Team of the national Wildlands Team led the revision of our Off-Road Use of Bicycles and our Off-Road Use of Motorized Vehicles policies. These were adopted in May 2022.
The revised policies acknowledge the benefits of e-bikes and promote their use in urban and developed areas. They make clear that e-bikes must be managed as motorized vehicles. In wildlands, where motorized use is prohibited, e-bikes also should be prohibited.
Industry Advocacy
When e-bikes first appeared, they had to meet the requirements for motorcycles and mopeds. Because these limitations were forecast to hurt sales, e-bike distributers and manufactures formed an organization, the PeopleForBikes Coalition, to change federal and state laws and policies to favor e-bikes. This group campaigned to convince the public that e-bikes should go everywhere conventional bicycles go. Today this organization has 27 full-time employees and a yearly budget of $3.7 million.
To facilitate and expand use of electric motorized bikes, the e-bike industry invented a system that ranks e-bikes as Class 1, 2, or 3. They contend that Class 1 e-bikes are similar to traditional bicycles because they operate only when riders are pedaling and go no faster than 20 mph. A conventional bicycle typically goes just over 10 miles per hour. Class 2 and 3 e-bikes are faster, heavier, and more powerful.
There is a practical problem with allowing Class 1 e-bikes wherever bicycles are allowed. It is not possible for a bicyclist or an enforcement officer to look at an e-bike and determine its “class.” There is no distinctive marking. Many e-bike models may be identical whether they are Class 1, 2, or 3. Also, it is easy for e-bike owners to modify these bikes to increase power and speed.
The class distinctions are unenforceable, and thus, if fully adopted, would open any non-motorized trail to any motorized bike.
PeopleForBikes has been very successful: 43 states have passed e-bike legislation that adopts their recommendations.
30x30, Wildlife, Hikers, and Equestrians
Human recreation has the potential to disturb wildlife and cause animals to avoid otherwise suitable habitat. Studies have shown that because e-bikes go faster and farther, they affect some wildlife more than hikers, cyclists, and horseback riders. Some hiking and horseback trails should be off-limits for vehicles.
Vehicular recreation conflicts with a critical need to protect biodiversity. Sierra Club champions the 30x30 campaign to conserve 30% of natural habitat by 2030. Motorized use may prevent achieving 30x30 goals and disqualify candidate natural areas for federal wilderness designation.
E-bikes are here and may benefit many. It will be our challenge to promote these and still respect others on trails and, of course, protect habitat and wildlife.
For more information, request a copy of the Sierra Club’s Recreation Issues Team e-bike background paper. This explains in detail our concerns relating to e-bike use on public lands and can serve as a resource for Chapters in responding to e-bike proliferation.
Reach out to the authors by writing to vicky.hoover@sierraclub.org or jm@wildutahproject.org