A new mountain bike park opened in Juneau late last month. At the same time, public outcry over electric motorcycles endangering riders and chopping up trails got the attention of city leaders, who are now considering regulations.
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At the drizzly grand opening of the Thunder Mountain Bike Park in the Mendenhall Valley on Sunday, dozens of people rode around trails through the spruce-hemlock forest, splattered with mud.
Reid Harris is a former president of the Juneau Mountain Bike Alliance and served in the role for eight years. He said he recently collided with a guy riding an electric motorcycle on Spruce Dust, the newest trail at Thunder Mountain. Harris was on a mountain bike.
“I was going downhill at 20 miles an hour, and I think he was going uphill at half that speed, and it was not great,” Harris said.
He said he made it out alright.
“I had some nice bruising and had to go have a head check with the doctor,” he said.
Harris said it’s dangerous. If the rider had been going faster, the situation could have ended differently. Some models of electric motorcycles that Harris and others have been seeing around Juneau can weigh 100 to 200 pounds and can go 50 miles per hour or more. A common brand name is Surron.
This spring, a mom in California was charged with involuntary manslaughter after her teen allegedly hit an 81-year-old man with his Surron. The man died from crash injuries.
Juneau residents have been posting on Facebook about groups of kids riding these vehicles in ways they say could lead to a similar catastrophe. The city’s parks and recreation department said it’s been getting more complaints from the community over the past few months.
Harris said the local trails aren’t built to withstand the wear and tear of electric motorcycles.
“You’re damaging this public asset that we built, and quite frankly, until this is controlled, we can’t come out here and work on the trails,” Harris said. “It’s not safe for us to be on the trails.”
The bike park took countless volunteer hours and cost around $320,000 to build, Harris said, which was raised through donations and a grant from the Juneau Community Foundation.
Currently, motorized vehicles are generally not allowed on city trails.
At a Juneau Assembly Lands, Housing, & Economic Development Committee meeting on Monday, city leaders discussed two different ordinance proposals to specifically regulate electric motorcycles.
Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said the first one, proposed by the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, is straightforward.
“If adopted, it would prohibit e-bikes and e-motos in all parks and rec areas that are already closed to motorized vehicles,” Barr said.
But it would allow what’s called Class 1 e-bikes, which provide pedal assistance using an electric motor up to 20 miles per hour.
Eaglecrest Ski Area requested an amendment to include its trails in the proposed ordinance and to increase the fine, which was initially set at $25. The committee did both. It raised the maximum fine to $150 and sent it to the full Assembly for discussion.
The second proposed ordinance, put forward by the Juneau Mountain Bike Alliance and the city manager’s office, is more stringent and would apply to the whole borough, not just trails.
It would define more classes of e-bikes and electric motorcycles that would be prohibited on city bike paths, shared-use pathways, sidewalks or trails. It would also require riders who use roadways to have a valid driver’s license. It would fine violators up to $300 and allow the city to impound the vehicle.
Assembly Member Neil Steininger said the first ordinance is ready to go, but the second one will need more work before it leaves the committee.
“I don’t think we have enough information to fully put forward the second ordinance at this point,” Steininger said. “But I think we could, you know, bite this off in chunks.”
The conversation revolved around how the definitions of types of e-bikes and e-motorcycles in the proposed ordinance could be confusing to consumers, who might not know they’re buying a restricted vehicle due to the way they’re marketed.
The parks and recreation department said the first ordinance should be introduced to the full Assembly at its Sept. 14 meeting.
