Carey's Report on the Nashville Greenways Commission on Ebikes

The following highlights to Carey's report are provided by T. Evans. As a owner of an ebike he thinks both the Nashville and TDOT regulations are misguided and lack knowledge of this new technology. He will offer position statement in the next several months. He supports Carey's attempt to educate regulators.

Greetings volunteers. I hope you all enjoy riding in the cold.

I’m going to try and summarize the current situation, but this thing has become so complicated you need a scorecard to keep up. My apologies for the wordiness and any lack of clarity.

We are planning a strategy meeting via zoom on February 9 at 6 pm. We will have a better idea of what we need to do after the Greenways Commission meets that day. Katherine McDonell and I have agreed to co-chair this group. We will need to give it a catchy name like E-Bike Riders for Sanity.

We need to keep pushing to allow BCycle to operate in the parks and continue to make clear our opposition to any restrictions on e-bikes. We can now add opposition to a parks run bike share (see below). I think we should also initiate a discussion of just what is a greenway?

The Current Situation

The Greenways Commission met on January 26 for a presentation of the Parks Department e-bike study. A copy of the “draft” report is attached to this email. Look at the recommendations at the end of the study even if you don’t read the rest. I am still reviewing the report much of which is the survey data.

The report may be presented to the Parks Board on February 1. It is not clear what, if any, action they will take since the Greenways Commission did not make a recommendation. Lindsey has asked for a clarification of the agenda. Some of the members of the Greenways Commission were not clear on what they were being asked to decide.

The Greenways Commission will meet again on February 9 and hopefully it will be in a larger room that can accommodate the public. Some council members made it clear they want another venue. I did not think it was an appropriate strategy to bring a crowd to the commission meetings, but I have changed my mind and think we should show up in numbers (hard for a midday meeting). They are a public body making important decisions just like any other Metro board or commission.

 

Meeting Takeaways

 This entire process started when BCycle asked for permission to operate in parks. It was a simple yes or no question. Then we had a council resolution that tasked the Greenways Commission and the Parks Board with deciding if e-bikes needed to be regulated beyond current law. After numerous meetings (kudos to Lindsey for attending them all) we now have this report from Parks.

The result is a Parks Department power play to take over bike share in parks. They would be totally in control of the vendor and would not allow dockless e-bikes. We would have three bike share systems, BCycle, the SUMD operators, Bird, Spin and Lime and the vendor for parks.

The report recommends only class 1 e-bikes on greenways which means class 2 would be banned. I do not believe there is support for that in council and a ban requires council action after determining that we are a threat to public safety.

Parks wants to hire a consultant and have a yearlong pilot program and they want additional funding. That is unnecessary and we need to make that clear to council. Seattle and Austin have already done pilot projects and allow e-bikes on trails. Seattle found e-bike riders have similar speeds to other cyclists and bike share riders are even slower.

Cindy Harrison, Assistant Director of Parks for Greenways is leading the study and brought up lots of extraneous issues. She claims that some greenway easements do not allow motorized vehicles. They emphasized their lack of control over BCycle even though they have been operating under a Metro contract for years. The non-profit Nashville Downtown Partnership contracts with Metro and in turn contracts with BCycle.

There were important questions asked by several council members at the meeting including Burkley Allen, Angie Henderson, and Nancy VanReece. It is safe to say that they are skeptical about the recommendations. Bob Mendes, Emily Benedict, and Sean Parker share their skepticism. If you have contact with a council member, please continue to express your concerns.

 

The Rest of the Story

 I should note that Bird, Spin and Lime will soon begin operating dockless bike share in Nashville this spring. They will rent between 250 to 375 e-bikes. I am in the process of determining if they are allowed on greenways under current law and rules. If not, they should be.

The Planning Department is currently developing an East Bank development strategy. They are going to build a new street through East Nashville (as if we do not have enough streets). I have been told they may build a greenway, under the control of Parks, and not allow bicycles on the street. That was news to me.

I think we should begin pressing for a discussion of what exactly is a greenway? Councilman Mendes has expressed the same concerns. Why is the Seigenthaler Bridge considered a greenway? The bike path from Ascend Theater to Rolling Mill Hill is a greenway. I would like to hear Parks defend their status.

If you made it this far reading this email you are dedicated. Feel free to call me at 615-828-6551. I think I can do a better job explaining this verbally than in writing.

Carey

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