WARREN — The non-profit Friends of Allegheny Wilderness is petitioning the Allegheny National Forest to formally amend their 2007 Land and Resource Management Plan to prohibit all bicycling on all non-motorized trails across the forest.
The ban would not apply to the Jakes Rocks mountain biking trail, of which FAW was an early supporter. The group is asking that pedestrian access to that trail be prohibited due to safety concerns.
The 20-year-old wilderness advocacy organization’s petition focuses largely on the rapidly emerging threat of electrified motorbikes, commonly termed “e-bikes,” and the inability to easily differentiate between e-bikes and regular mountain bikes. Aided by electric motors, e-bikes can reach “unnatural and unsafe speeds” with relatively little effort, the group alleged.
“Removing all bicycle use from all non-motorized trails in the ANF is critical in order to uphold the integrity of the land and trails. The increased popularity of e-bikes makes this action more urgent, as they represent a threat to hikers,” said a release from the group. “This is especially true for vulnerable populations, such as the elderly and young children, who do not have the reflexive capabilities to dodge an incoming e-bike.”
FAW executive director Kirk Johnson said, “It is axiomatic that since any of them could be an e-bike at any given time, no mountain bikes at all can be permitted on any of the non-motorized trails in the Allegheny National Forest.
“This, of course, includes not only all of the trails at the 9,705-acre proposed Tracy Ridge Wilderness Area, but also the Tanbark Trail, all of the trails within the proposed Morrison Run Wilderness Area, and many others around the forest.”
Johnson said if the Forest Service fails to take this action, the liability will be on their hands when, not if, hikers are struck and injured by a careening mountain biker illegally riding an e-bike on a non-motorized trail.
FAW previously successfully challenged a plan by the ANF to open up hiking trails within the 9,705-acre proposed Tracy Ridge Wilderness Area — the largest inventoried roadless area on federal public lands in Pennsylvania.
