Letter to the Editor: E-bikes don’t belong on Mill Creek

According to the Moab City website, the Mill Creek Parkway is described as…”a quiet recreational path and trail system designed for bicycles, walkers, rollerblades, or other non-motorized methods of transportation.”

I almost got run over by an e-bike while I was walking the Doggess of Joy, Juanita, early one morning on the Mill Creek Parkway. A young man came zooming through an underpass toward me on an e-bike. He was going so fast I thought at first it was a motorcycle.

Pedestrians have few options where we can walk in town that are not occupied by motorized forms of transportation. Most older neighborhoods were not designed with sidewalks. People have to walk in the streets. It’s odd that people are forced to walk in the streets while the parkway is attracting more use as a speedway for bikes. There are no posted speed limits and there is no way to enforce them if there were. And there are no signs that specifically prohibit e-bikes on the parkway. An electric bike is a motorized form of transportation, is it not?

I know the promotion of Moab into a recreational mecca has become wearisome for many of us, and having to add another regulation to the long list of tactics to control the behavior of our burgeoning population is a pain in the ass. Butt! What’s left is worth saving.

Sincerely,

Kaki Hunter

Moab