B-Cycle on Greenways

Bcycle (which is owned by Trek) is requesting permission to allow class 1 on the greenways and we decided to support their request. We’ll argue the law later if necessary. Bob Mendes is a council member who rides an e-bike and is a lot better at politics than I so we’re following his lead.

WBN has a very good summary here.

https://www.walkbikenashville.org/e_bikes_on_greenway

Anyway you could get the word out to any Nashville riders? E-mails to board members (and council members) with personal stories are very important. As you know there are lots of misconceptions about e-bikes, which drives me crazy, and we’re definitely trying to educate some decision makers.

Carey

HERE IS MY RESPONSE

Carey,

This issue is a tough one to evaluate.

Relative to the way that I and other FOGBEES ride our eBikes, this entire greenway issue is absurd. We frequently ride our ebikes on Nashville greenways with the motor turned off. So what CLASS are we? We ride identically to other bikes on these greenways.

For us, this whole legislation is just another absurd attempt by unknowledgeable to make unenforceable laws.

Then I try to put myself in the position of people who will rent these eBikes and want to ride them on the greenways. Will they ride like my club companions?

My best guess is that they will abuse the privilege and make nuisances of themselves. It will be a lot like the craziness of the electric scooters on Nashville streets.

So what is the solution?

Legislate against the behavior and not the vehicle. My Corvette has a top speed of 160 mph, but I am allowed to ride on the highways. If our lawmakers followed the same concept as they are proposing for eBikes, they would not allow any car on the highways capable of going faster than the top speed limit.

I would set specific speed limits and behavior rules with signs on the greenways and then ENFORCE them.

We don’t need another “3-foot law” that everyone ignores.

Tom

---

From:Carey Rogers Sent: Monday, July 5, 2021

I disagree about who will ride them and made the same argument to the transportation licensing commission. I think the less responsible ones will get a scooter.

They aren’t available in parks (although the scooter companies want them there) but I just don’t see the lower Broad partiers going to Shelby Park for a bike ride. Maybe on the urban greenways but they belong there for sure. The scooters had nearly 2 million rides in 2019 and if they were as dangerous as people think there would be bodies all over the streets. 

I can’t find a single city that bans e-bikes on greenways. Washington passed the same law we did and Seattle allowed class 1 and 2. They’re allowed in Austin after a pilot program.

Parks doesn’t enforce the speed limit or e-bike ban because of “lack of resources”. They have a lot of resources but don’t think this is important enough. They’re going to have e-bikes whether they want them or not.

---

From: Tom Sent: July 5, 2021

My first thoughts relative to the matter you posed, matched what you are saying. However, as a matter of dialogue and not debate, I thought what would be the worst-case situation for ebikes on greenways. That is what I offered in my earlier email.

I hate those electric scooters and want to avoid, at all costs, a similar experience with ebikes on the greenways. I ride my ebike on greenways (motor turned off most of the time), know what Tennessee laws says, and don’t want some ignorant do-good potentially getting me kicked off greenways in Tennessee or any other state.

Bike rentals are at both ends of the Shelby Bottoms/Stones River greenway trails. If someone rents a bike there, they plan to ride the greenway. They are not “local” and very likely don’t have a lot of motivation to respect the use of our trails.  It won’t take too many injuries to get us banned.

I am not sure it is possible not to rent ebikes at the trails but allow them to be rented elsewhere. Eventually, they get mixed.

I recognize the resource limitation to patrol the greenway. But what would be easier to do: patrol for bad behavior or do a “roadblock” check of my bike class? When the hewn cry goes out, they will always do that which takes the least effort to satisfy the public. I prefer to force them to do the hard job upfront than to take the easy way out.

---