Marquette is a place where outdoor recreation lies at the heart of the city. However, with the growing confusion and safety concerns surrounding the use of e-bikes, the city will host a public input session to hear ideas from the public about multi-use path regulation. (Journal photo by Abby LaForest)

MARQUETTE — With the usage of E-bikes in the city of Marquette increasing, confusion regarding city ordinances, safety concerns and common courtesy on multi-use paths in the city have risen. In response, the city of Marquette is holding an input session to hear public opinion on e-bike and multi-use path usage.

In a letter to the Mining Journal editor published in the July 5 edition, Harvey resident Sandra Virta recounted an experience where she and her husband were warned by a city police officer that they weren’t allowed to ride their class two E-bikes on the bike path.

“We had learned about it this spring and we were told by a different city police officer that we were OK and that they weren’t worried about us responsible riders. Now we’re warned that we need to ride in traffic so we rode to Presque Isle on Lakeshore Boulevard, and wow! We all know how busy that street is and it was quite scary,” wrote Virta in her letter. “Cars had to constantly speed around us when there was an opening and we could see they weren’t happy. Someone yelled at us to use the bike trail. That’s all we want. Maybe a special sticker for seniors to allow us back on there.”

Virta’s experience with the potential confusion and dangers surrounding E-bike usage in the city isn’t an isolated incident. Safety concerns and confusion about local regulations regarding the issue have led the city Commission to form the E-bike and Multi-Use Path Network Task Force to address certain downfalls that have come with increased E-bike traffic in the city.

Captain James Finkbeiner of the Marquette City Police says that the problems with e-bike regulation and safety stem from the class two E-bikes in particular, due to how they function differently compared to class one E-bikes.

“Over the last two years, the city has experienced a very large increase in the number of E-bikes being used by people to get around the city. The problem in particular is with the class two E-bikes which use an electric motor and a “throttle” for speed to propel the bike which makes the bike act and react much differently than a traditional bike and even the class one E-bikes, which use an electric motor but the rider must pedal to actually have the motor help propel the bike,” Finkbeiner wrote in a message to The Mining Journal. He said the increased use in these E-bikes has led to complaints of how fast people ride them on the multi-use path, which is busy with pedal bikers, walkers, runners, people walking their dogs and other pedestrians. There has also been an increase in the number of complaints of them being used on the sidewalks and in the streets, occasionally in a reckless manner.

“We have undertaken a multi-edged approach to try and help solve this problem. We have gone into the schools and given presentations to the middle school students regarding bicycle safety and the use of E-bikes and the “rules of the road” for bicyclists. We have done a lot of social media informational posts and even several PSAs on television regarding safe bicycling,” Finkbeiner explained. “Our officers, including our Bike Patrol, have also been enforcing the newer ordinance not allowing class two and three E-bikes on the multi-use path this summer by making stops when possible and educating those riders on the rules of the multi-use pathway. We have written several tickets to violators, but mostly we have been warning and educating the riders on the correct rules and ways to ride all bikes, but especially E-bikes.”

As of June, the current e-bike rules for the city of Marquette include the following:

• The Marquette City Multi-Use Path only allows class one E-bikes. Class two and three e-bikes are not allowed on the city’s multi-use path.

• The Iron Ore Heritage Trail follows state of Michigan E-bike rules, which allow class one and two e-bikes unless otherwise restricted. Local city rules take precedence in Marquette when the trial passes through city property, and only class one E-bikes are allowed on those parts.

• Only class one E-bikes are allowed on the Noquemanon Trail Network.

Marquette City Commissioner Cary Gottlieb, who currently serves as the chair for the E-Bike and Multi-Use Path Task Force, explains how multiple factors have influenced the current E-bike predicament the city is working to solve.

“Several things have occurred in Marquette nearly simultaneously. In the past few years, the sales and rental of electric bikes … has skyrocketed in the area. E-bikes have a variety of classes that allow some to be used essentially as a(n) e-motorcycle (throttle only) or as a peddle-assisted bike with a maximum speed of 28 miles per hour. There has also been an increase in summer tourist and local traffic on the multi-use paths (i.e. the “bike path“) in the city, including walkers, hikers, runners, traditional bikers, pet walkers, roller-bladers, roller-skiers, and other new mobility choices, such as one wheels and e-scooters,” writes Gottlieb in a message to The Mining Journal. “In addition, the current city ordinances in place for the multi-use path and notification of commonly accepted courtesy rules for path use are not readily available. There is no mandated education for people, including children who have not had any instruction on how to interact at high speeds. And did I mention that many people are texting and taking pictures while going at high speeds (I had a near collision yesterday with a person who was taking pictures of the lake and was swerving on the road)?”

Gottlieb explains that these factors have led to a busier multi-use path by people going a wide variety of speeds and people and pets on all sides of the path, who often use the entire path width and may not know how to approach or pass someone else on the path. He says that the city administration, Public Safety and himself along with the other city commissioners have been hearing more complaints about the path than ever, coming from all ages and types of users.

“We have heard concerns from parents of kids with E-bikes that their kids are being discriminated against because they are riding E-bikes on the path and object to having their kids being asked to ride on the road with cars, kids who complain that the city is taking away their freedom, people who are afraid to use the path because they have been hit or nearly hit by an E-biker, older people who complain they can’t use their E-bike because of city ordinance … and they need a class two bike to get up to speed, pet owners who feel unsafe with speeding bikers, and so on,” said Gottlieb.

The E-bike and Multi-Use Pathway Task Force was formed in response to the increased number of complaints and the amount of near-misses that the city has knowledge of. The city commission has asked the task force to look at what is happening on the path and offer suggestions to the commission that may be implemented to make the multi-use path more user friendly, as well as suggest rules that might help steer the future of e-bike usage in the city.

“One of the ways the Task Force hopes to arrive at conclusions is to have an open forum for people to say what they like and what they don’t like about the path, and what they think we might do to improve the path,” Gottlieb noted. “We are also meeting with bike shop owners, to those who rent bikes, city engineering, Public Safety, many user groups (such as NTN) and student groups, among others. We hope to wrap up interviews and (data gathering) by October and present our findings to the city commission in December.”

The task force will be hosting a public input session at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Citizens Forum in Lakeview Arena, located at 401 E. Fair Ave. The session will include a brief presentation from city staff focused on current and upcoming transportation planning efforts. Following the presentation, the task force will take public comment and is hoping to hear from residents about their experiences, concerns and priorities regarding e-bike use in Marquette and about the city’s multi-use path network. The public comment portion will follow the city’s standard format, with a three-minute limit per speaker.

The meeting is planned as a community kickoff to help shape the task force’s work in the coming months, and the group has planned several public meetings for the future.

Those who prefer to share feedback in writing can email clerk@marquettemi.gov. The city has also created an online questionnaire to gather community input for review and consideration by the task force. The questionnaire can be found online at forms.microsoft.com/r/W5ZhC5jeY1.

Additional information about the task force, including the roster and the adopted meeting calendar, is available online at marquettemi.gov/ebtf.

Abby LaForest can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 548. Her email address is alaforest@miningjournal.net.