I grew up at the edge of an East Coast city that bordered rural farmland across a not-too-distant state border. Now in my 70th year, I can remember lots of my childhood and teen years riding bikes on two-lane country roads with hardly a car encounter for miles. I’m sure it was like that here at one time as well.
Those times are gone and will never return with now-frequent complaints about trail crowding like never before. One must accept that these are first and foremost public trails that everyone has a right to use and expect them to be a safe place to recreate. I’m a big safety guy! I’ve had decades involved with mountain safety as well as conducting solo safety seminars in an industrial environment and am a true believer that education is usually the best answer to solving bad behavior. E-bikes and even totally human-powered bikes don’t misbehave — people do. I’m not a big fan of the everywhere racks of rental e-bikes and wonder about any actual benefit to Park City and Summit County, taking up lots of space that could be utilized for sorely lacking bike racks to serve taxpayers and guests. My feeling is these locations should be staffed by the company providing the bikes, ensuring that operators are of age. At the same time operators could be required to view a 10-minute safety video one time with a record of viewing kept in their account. It appears a significant number of these people haven’t ridden a lot of bike miles, maybe never or not for a long time. If that’s too onerous for the rental firm, then maybe it should move on. For the benefit of local businesses that are already managing bike rentals, it would move people into shops where they could again be required to view a video, whether renting or purchasing a bike, e-bike or not.
My bike is a class 1 full-suspension EMTB that’s very heavy and builds speed very fast going downhill. It has oversized brake rotors and four piston calipers and is the most stable bike I’ve ever ridden, capable of easily controlling its speed. I primarily ride using 0 and level 1 of assistance. I’m not after speed, only looking for range of exploration and exercise. Park City police and Summit County deputies would like bike riders to be aware that rules of the road are to be observed as they apply, just like for cars. A couple days ago, I observed a woman about my age roll through a stop sign right in front of a car with the right-of-way making a right-hand turn. If the driver hadn’t been paying attention it could have been very disastrous for the woman and her family. E-bikes alone are not the problem. Recently riding on the paved Newpark trail, which has a posted 5MPH limit, I was going at a slow speed and a large group of mixed-age kids blasted past me in the same direction using the whole trail width. Just because you can go fast doesn’t mean you should. I always slow down when encountering pedestrians or other riders and blind corners. It’s a not-too-common courtesy. Yes, our trails are crowded and it’s not going to get better and, more likely than not, it will get worse. We live in this amazing place with access to an incredible trail system, and we all need to share it with the safety of all in mind.