A view of the forest and old cranberry bogs in the Black Run Preserve in Evesham.
John Volpa, founder of the Black Run Preserve in Evesham, says electric bikes are scarring the permanently protected 1,300 acres of pristine forest and old cranberry bogs in the southern part of town and endangering hikers.
His concerns caught the attention of the Evesham Township Council, which on December 10 will hold a public hearing on a proposed law prohibiting the use of electric bikes, electric scooters or other motorized vehicles throughout the Township's park system, including on the trails of the Black Run Preserve.
"E-bike riders have created a new network of trails, degrading and rutting the soil, while cutting down trees to make those trails," Volpa told Council members at the October meeting. "They are a danger to pedestrians on the trail."
The proposed ordinance states it would limit to non-motorized traffic only "all trails having a natural surface tread made by clearing and grading, and no surfacing materials added." The next Council meeting, which will include a hearing on the ordinance and a vote to adopt on second reading, will be held December 10 beginning at 7 p.m. in the Municipal Complex, 984 Tuckerton Road.
Township Manager Walt Miller said Evesham plans to address the over-arching problem of e-bikes and similar vehicles in the coming year. However, the Township did not want to wait until then to make using the motorized vehicles illegal on park trails.
Miller, speaking at the November Council meeting, said the ordinance will provide "protection of the trails themselves from damage, potentially prevent injury to people that are out walking and not expecting a fast-moving electric bike to come up almost soundless behind them."
If Evesham next year adopts a local law restricting the use of e-bikes and similar motorized vehicles on the streets it would join several other New Jersey municipalities that are restricting use of e-bikes.
Both boys and girls have been killed while riding e-bikes this year. Two teenage girls, students at Cranford High School in Union County, were killed in late September by an alleged hit-and-run driver who was 17 years old.
State Senate President Nicholas P. Scutari (D-Somerset, Union) on November 6 introduced a bill to regulate e-bikes and similar vehicles statewide that would supersede municipal laws.
Scutari's proposal would limit e-bike use to riders 15 years or older and only if they passed a state exam and were issued a special motorized bicycle license. The e-bike operator also would need to carry a valid insurance identification card and registration certificate for the vehicle.
Evesham Council member Joe Fisicaro Jr. called his Township's proposed ordinance regulating the vehicles in parks "a great first step for us."
"I know a lot of times...these e-bikes are kids that are in middle school and high school, and it's the same thing it is for every generation: 'Oh, they're taking away all our fun stuff.' But yeah, the reality is we're doing something because we want to save you, and this is one of those things that, again, you imagine an accident out there that happens on the trail and how difficult it can be for services to get out there," Fisicaro said at the November meeting.
Black Run founder and Evesham resident Volpa, who was seeking to protect the preserve from motorized vehicles, also expressed concern about how the e-bikes are used on streets in town.
"It's disturbing to see these behaviors" of riders of the faster e-bikes at speeds approaching 30 miles an hour, he told Council.
"Not wearing helmets, popping wheelies, carrying passengers on the little spikes behind. Towing riders of regular bikes. Of course, looking at cell phones while riding and riding on the left-hand side of the road," Volpa said. Now, it's this last behavior — riding on the left-hand side of the road — that's particularly dangerous because a car driver making a right-hand turn may not see a rider coming on the left. So these teenagers are putting themselves at risk as potential organ donors."
