CO's Jefferson County Open Space allows Class 1 e-bikes on all trails

[GBD1]

Sharing some good news.

https://www.bicycleretailer.com/indu...e#.W-87COhKibg

 

[ron t]

I know there are pilot programs going on or recently completed at other places like the EBMPD in the Bay Area. I hope this is a sign of things to come.

 

[PinoyMTBer]

With JeffCo opening up to Emtbs. Im sure this will cause a domino effect more and more open spaces opening to Class 1 Emtbs. I wonder how soon will see a Yeti or GG Ebikes.

 

[Walt]

That has been the case for about a year now. Jeffco is crowded as heck, so it will be a great test case over the next decade or so.

 

[ron t]

Yeah, sorry -- too many letters. It's EBRPD. Just waiting for the results but I'm sure they will take forever. Who knows why they chose the trails they did. Maybe because those are the most crowded paths with the biggest mix of users: Hikers, runners, cyclists, roller blades, and homeless people. If it can work there, it can work anywhere.

 

[honkinunit]

Great news!

I went to the Jeffco Open Space meeting in February where they announced the pilot program, and I got good vibes from the rangers and staff at that time.

Honestly, I only rode my eMTB a couple of times on Jeffco trails this summer. I spent more time at Golden Gate State Park, NFS forest roads near Rollinsville, and places like Moab and Rabbit Valley. It will be nice to be able to hit North Table for a quick ride in winter though.

BTW, Commencal rents eMTBs in Golden, and you can hit Jeffco trails right out of their parking lot.

For those who don't know, Jefferson County, Colorado is basically the western edge of the Denver metro area, which has 3,000,000 residents and a ton of tourism in addition to that. Because Jeffco trails are so close to Denver, they get over 7 MILLION visitations per year. The fact that they have made ebikes permanently welcome is a great story for ebike advocates. Meanwhile, the anal retentive ex-hippies in Boulder(the county bordering Jeffco to the north) have banned ebikes on all trails except some commuter trails on the plains, and even some of those are off limits. It took Boulder County a year of head spinning and hand wringing to even allow ebikes on the few commuter trails on which they are allowed. That place amazes me. I think the commissioners ask for a staff study before they take a s**t, and then they debate the results of the staff study before they finally take the dump. Afterwords they commission another study of the results. It is a nasty job to be on the Boulder County staff.