By Charles Pekow — It turns out that e-bikes don’t cause significant damage to national parks after all. In 2020, the National Park Service (NPS) implemented a rule restricting e-bikes, but a court later required NPS to reconsider, citing insufficient study. After a more thorough review, NPS concluded that allowing e-bikes would have “no significant impact” in most cases.
However, NPS did not entirely rule out the potential for harm in specific parks. Park superintendents have the discretion to prohibit e-bikes on certain roads or trails if they believe damage could occur. Naturally, e-bikes remain banned on trails and administrative roads where regular bicycles are also not permitted.
According to NPS, e-bikes don’t generally cause more soil erosion, trail widening, or muddiness than traditional bikes.
For more details, visit https://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?projectId=117364.
