e-Bikes are everywhere in Colorado these days, in part thanks to the success of voucher and rebate programs offered in Front Range cities. Denver added 10,000 new e-Bikes with their Fall 2024 program. That’s just a small part of the 2+ million new e-Bikes projected to be sold in the US in 2024. Up from 1.1 million in 2023. Worldwide e-Bike sales are off the charts and projected to continue to grow exponentially.
More e-Bike sales result in more new riders on local paths who may not know cycling etiquette. They’re all sharing the same 8-foot-wide bike paths that were not designed for motorized traffic.
Multi-use paths in metro areas are already overcrowded with pedestrians, cyclists, and e-devices. Conflicts are arising so often that they threaten the privacy that riders expect when riding on bike paths away from cars.
Yet few communities are making efforts to understand and improve the situation. Most front range cities including Denver, Boulder and Ft. Collins reported 5-8 e-Bike related crashes on bike paths in 2022. These stats do not include unreported crashes and the close encounters or ‘near miss’ incidents where e-Bikes create dangerous situations by going too fast without warning others.
“Near misses today may be the crashes we complain about tomorrow” said Mark Wood, Founder, Boulder based e-Bike Safety Advocates. “To avoid more crashes involving e-Bikes, communities need to reinforce the ‘Safe Riding’ message and start measuring where these incidents are occurring. With factual data about where incidents are happening, they’ll be better prepared to make bike path improvements where friction points exist.”
One local company, e-Bike Safety Advocates, is working on an approach that may help.
e-Bike Safety Advocates offers outdoor bike path signage to make sure all riders are getting the same basic safety message, for locals as well as the millions of visitors to Colorado each year. The graffiti proof signs include a QR code-based reporting system that allows users quick access to dedicated bike path maps, restricted e-Bike trails, and the capability to report an incident or crash.
Based on worldwide e-Biking trends, the pending inflationary period in the US and other factors indicate that e-Biking popularity in Colorado is just getting started. Crashes may become more frequent on bike paths and injuries that are severe enough for parents and individuals to take legal action against cities and Parks & Rec Departments for negligence. Creating baseline data is imperative if we plan to address future problems now.
