EBikes allowed in National Parks

[F350joe]

I use my eBike to get into national parks, run into town, go to a trail head, or just cruise around at sunset after a day of hiking. Zion has some strange rules banning them entirely in the park which makes no sense for that zoo. Yellowstone would be great by eBike but no shoulder and narrow roads, I didn’t dare but would if there were bike lanes. If you are staying in or near a national park you can usually park the rig and just use the eBike to get around. Not sure hikers and ebikes mix on the trails but doesn’t sound like they opened up hiking trails. What are your thoughts?

Access or accidents: National Park Service expansion of electric bikes draws criticism

Access or accidents: National Park Service expansion of electric bikes draws criticism

Supporters of the change say it rightly gives the elderly and the physically disabled greater access to part of national parks they cannot reach now.

www.usatoday.com

 

[shade]

With all of the electrically assisted bikes becoming available, I could see all e-bikes under a certain output or speed lumped in with purely human powered bikes. I can see a place for them being used by park personnel, too. For use restrictions, there needs to be a cutoff between lightweight, relatively slow bicyclish things, and electrically powered motorcycles. Fwiw, the 28 mph limit mentioned in the article seems high to me.

I don't think you'll find e-bikes of any sort allowed where bicycles aren't already permitted, and that's fine with me. Some of the grumps in that article may need to rein in their Trump hate a little bit. Allowing e-bike use isn't on par with a tram up El Cap. Over the top comments like that only interfere with a discussion.

 

[Lovetheworld]

In our country we have a difference between an e-bike that can go 25km/h and up to 45km/h. Both are human powered but assisted of course. The 45km/h ebike falls in the same category as a moped, the slower one is just seen as a pushbike.
Next to that, if you are not powering the bike itself, but just run it on electrical power with a throttle, it is considered as a moped as well, even though it may only go 20km/h.

So with that kind of system, you just allow pushbikes and you're fine.

 

[shade]

There's another thread going on this topic, if people want to jump in.

https://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/national-parks-to-permit-ebikes.208656/page-2#post-2672863