The program was set to launch on Monday but Parks and Recreation discovered that while the city code does not classify e-bikes as motorized vehicles, it doesn't apply that definition to trail systems.
Officials are pumping the brakes on expanding electric bike access to Colorado Springs parks.
A pilot program was to start Monday a yearlong study allowing the increasingly popular technology on all city-managed trails where other bikes are allowed. On Thursday, though, the city announced the program would be postponed until further notice.
Kurt Schroeder, the city s park operations and development manager, said the holdup is due to legal questions.
E-bikes are equipped with electric motors that provide pedal-assisted boosts. In response to the initial outcry over those motors infringing on city codes related to non-motorized trails, parks department officials pointed to federal and state definitions of e-bikes as bikes, not as motorized vehicles.
Changes are afoot yet again at the Manitou Incline.
The city of Colorado Springs, representing the land-owning and top managing entity of the popular trail, on Thursday announced adjustments to the number of reservations allowed at certain times of the busy summer days ahead.
Hikers booking for free online will now see 65 slots available every half-hour from 6 am. to 10 a.m., up from the previous 45 for every half-hour during all opening hours. Now from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., 45 spots will be available every half-hour, while they will be down to 25 every 30 minutes from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
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Colorado Springs parks funding backlog nearly $270M, a crisis level gazette.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gazette.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Colorado Springs Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department is facing an almost $270 million backlog after years of insufficient funding. To me it’s at that crisis level we still have a good park system, a really great one that people love but we are using it to death, said City Council President Richard Skorman, who is leading an effort to restore funding to the parks department.
City officials knew the park s department had been underfunded for years since the recession, when the budget was cut from $19 million a year to $6 million, he said. But no one knew the total backlog was going to be quite so large, he said.