A one-year trial period for electric bikes was approved by the Durango City Council Tuesday.
Three city advisory boards spent about nine months holding meetings and crafting rules to govern e-bikes and the council embraced all of them, including restrictions on the type of bike and trails where they can be used.
The decision did not require a vote because the council did not revise city ordinances.
Councilor Sweetie Marbury expressed the most concern about allowing ebikes on the Animas River Trail because some areas of it are substandard.
“It’s loved to death and I think we have to fix it first before we do anything else,” she said.
Other councilors felt e-bike users are already using the trails and it was time to act.
“If we don’t try to get with it, it will just come up and hit us in the face,” Mayor Dick White said.
E-bikes will be allowed on Animas River, Florida Road and Goeglein Gulch Road trails and the snowcat trail on Chapman Hill when the pilot program starts.
Class I and class II e-bikes will be allowed. On a class I ebike, the motor kicks in when the rider pedals up to 20 mph. Class II ebikes have throttles and the motor can run independently of the rider pedaling, but it cuts out at 20 mph.
The trial period will start after the city finishes safety improvements along the Animas River Trail. The city plans to install way finding and yield signs near intersections and striping in areas with limited sight distances over the summer, Parks and Recreation Director Cathy Metz said.
The Natural Land Preservation, Multimodal and Parks and Recreation advisory boards supported speed limits on the trail of 10 mph from Memorial Park to Cundiff Park and 15 mph south of Cundiff Park to Dallabetta Park.
Police Chief Kamran Afzal was opposed to them because the department does not have the personnel to enforce them, city documentation said.
City Attorney Dirk Nelson did not recommend adopting a speed limit that the city cannot enforce.
Officers, however, can write tickets for careless driving, which could include an incident that involved excessive speed, Commander Robert Brammer said.
The councilors backed painting recommended speed limits of 10 mph and 15 mph on the trail.
Feedback from the public, the Durango Police Department and park rangers will help decide whether e-bikes will be allowed after the trial period ends.
Safety concerns on the Animas River Trail were at the center of the debate around allowing e-bikes.
However, some members of the advisory council did not think that e-bikes would exacerbate safety concerns because cyclists are already using e-bikes, said Frank Viehmann with the Parks and Recreation board.
To address trail congestion issues, Marbury asked to discuss the Animas River Trail construction in July to see if the substandard sections could be improved on a tighter schedule.
