Here’s some good news you didn’t know you needed: The King County Council has legalized riding Class 1 and 2 e-bikes as well as electric scooters on the county’s trails. I’m guessing most of you out there had no idea this was not already legal, and e-bike riders have been happily and safely riding there for many years.
The change came as part of a long-awaited major revision of King County Parks rules. Other changes included adding vapes to the definition of a tobacco product and removing a rule that made it illegal to have a picnic except in designated picnic areas. I bet you didn’t know you’ve been having illegal picnics this whole time. In fact, some of you absolute rebels have been illegally riding e-bikes to your illegal picnics. You got away with it, but just barely.
Everything in this story pertains only to trails operated by King County Parks, so it excludes trails operated by other jurisdictions such as Seattle. Seattle allowed e-bikes and scooters on trails years ago, and Seattle-operated trails do not have a mph-based speed limit or hours of operation.
The King County Council added language codifying e-bike classes to mirror state law and mesh with Snohomish and Pierce County rules. They also defined a “micromobility device” as “a personal vehicle meant to carry one or two passengers that has an electric motor and includes electric-assisted bicycles, motorized foot scooters, electric skateboards and other relatively small and lightweight electric devices that provide mobility.” They then exempted “micromobility devices” from the definition of a “motor vehicle.” So what this all means is that you can now ride an e-bike or scooter on trails that do not allow motor vehicles unless signage specifies otherwise. The Parks Director can define specific rules for specific trails at their discretion, but these limitations need to be posted.
The Council did add an interesting exception to the 15 mph trail speed limit rule for mountain biking. Instead, mountain bikers “may not travel at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the conditions with regard to the actual and potential hazards then existing.” I wish this were the rule governing bike speeds on all trails. A mph limit feels like such a car-brained idea that doesn’t really make sense for people on bikes since most bikes don’t have speedometers. 15 is way too fast for congested areas, but it is perfectly safe to ride faster than 15 for many long stretches that are not congested. The language “may not travel at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the conditions” is better because it gets at the behavior we are trying to encourage. Too bad they can’t just post “Speed Limit: Don’t be an asshole.”
Trails, like all King County Parks, technically close at sundown, though this is another rule that essentially nobody follows. Unfortunately, the Council did not change the rules to specifically allow people to use regional trails when it is dark out, though they discussed it. Instead, they passed an ordinance requiring the Parks Department to conduct a “feasibility assessment” by next February for extending trail hours. The assessment should include a list of potential trails and should also consider the importance of trails as transportation connections. They also updated the code to allow the Parks Director to extend trail hours without requiring further Council action and specified that if a person is on a trail the passes through a park, the trail’s open hours apply.
It is absurd for trails to close at sundown since they are transportation facilities. We don’t shut down roads at night, do we? Everybody ignores this rule if they even know it exists. Are we really telling people they should bike on the nearby busy street or highway instead of a peaceful trail whenever it gets dark? Absolute nonsense. It seems like yet another rule designed to harass unhoused people, and I have never heard of anyone getting a ticket for biking on a trail at night (if you have, let me know). The more likely implications are about liability. If trail conditions are unsafe and contribute to a serious bike crash, for example, it may be more difficult for a person’s case to succeed since the county can just say that they were there illegally. But the county should absolutely be responsible for maintaining trails to be safe in dark conditions because it is perfectly reasonable for a trail user to expect them to be safe at all hours. These are transportation facilities and need to be treated as such.
But all this does raise a larger question about how trail rules are governed. Trails are transportation facilities that span multiple jurisdictions just like roads, and it is unreasonable to put the onus on trail users to know when they have a crossed a border and how each jurisdiction’s trail rules differ. I don’t know the best way to do it, but it seems like there should be a way to set basic rules that govern an entire trail network regardless of jurisdiction. It’s ridiculous that someone biking along the Burke-Gilman Trail in Seattle after sundown suddenly becomes an scofflaw as soon as they cross the city limit. From their perspective, nothing has changed.
Nicholas Deshais at the Seattle Times noted one peculiar issue I had never heard of: Trails constructed with federal money cannot allow electric scooters. E-bikes are allowed, but electric scooters will be banned from sections of the East Lake Sammamish and Lake to Sound Trails, at least until the feds update their rules.
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