The Alberta Ministry of Forestry and Parks has opened all bike-legal trails in their provincial parks to e-bike use. The decision follows a two-year pilot program that took place from 2019 to 2021 in Kananaskis Country, which includes the popular West Bragg Creek trail system.
During the pilot, “pedal assist electric bikes (e-bikes) [were tested] on a sub-set of designated pathways and trail networks in the Kananaskis Region,” according to AlbertaParks.ca. “This pilot assessed the safety of this activity and collected feedback from visitors. Since the pilot concluded, e-bikes have continued to be permitted on the pilot pathways and trails.”
As a result of the study and feedback, Forestry and Parks determined:
- most current e-bike use aligns with class 1 pedal assist e-bikes
- pedal-assist e-bikes are perceived as being very compatible in a park setting
- allowing pedal-assist e-bikes in parks presents low risk to visitor safety and park features.
Based on this visitor feedback and determination, the Ministry of Forestry and Parks has decided to open all bike-legal trails to class 1 e-bikes in “provincial parks, provincial recreation areas and wildland provincial parks.”
Support for the decision from the Canmore & Area Mountain Biking Association (CAMBA)
In comments shared with Singletracks, CAMBA supported the decision to allow e-bikes on mountain bike trails. “CAMBA believes that enjoyment of trails should not be exclusive and supports Alberta Forestry and Park’s decision to accept the findings of their pilot and allow Class 1 e-bike use on all designated trails,” wrote Laura Quelch, Executive Director of CAMBA.
Quelch went on to note that e-bike usage has only continued to grow over the years and that “Canmore already has a good number of e-bike users on our local network. This policy change should not suddenly result in trails being overrun with e-bike users. Most increase will likely be on green beginner trails and pathways which will handle this increase in use easier than more advanced trails.”
It seems that Quelch is subtly acknowledging that e-bikers are already riding the trails, whether legal or not. This is supported by data Singletracks collected in a recent survey, in which 54% of respondents said that even if they don’t have enough e-bike-legal trails to ride, they will “ride anyway, regardless of what the signs say.”
The scale of the Alberta provincial parks system
According to their website, Alberta has “over 460 provincial parks & protected areas.” The scale of the Alberta provincial parks system is so massive and, presumably, keeps growing that they choose not to provide an exact number.
It’s difficult to determine how many hundreds if not thousands of kilometers of mountain bike trails are contained in Alberta provincial parks. That said, the provincial parks system include popular mountain biking hotspots such as West Bragg Creek, the Canmore Nordic Centre, the Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park, Spray Valley Provincial Park, and many more. Opening all of these mountain bike trails to e-bikes will be a massive boon for e-bike owners.
