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Amateur e-bike hour on Maroon Creek Road

And it has come to this. In a nutshell, an influx of e-bikes on Maroon Creek Road has created a safety issue that never existed before e-bikes. Now Pitkin County seeks to alleviate the issue by punishing those who neither created the problem nor have ever been the root of the problem.

If the county wants to address the issue, please direct the solution to those who created it. Not the rest of us. The bottom line is that those who pedal bicycles without the assistance of electric motors have no need for a lesson in cycling etiquette. We know very well that a bicycle has little or no chance against a 3,500-pound car, no less a bus.

I don’t mean to point the proverbial finger at all e-bike riders, because many of them understand the risks of cycling. That being said, the vast number of tourists driving, not pedaling, their e-bikes up Maroon Creek Road, or any road in the county for that matter have rarely, if ever, even ridden a bike, especially in mountainous terrain.



In short, if the county seeks a solution, then please direct that solution towards those who created its need, not towards those of us who have not.

Jamie Klein




Carbondale

Editor’s note: At Wednesday’s meeting of Pitkin County commissioners, the board indicated it is leaning toward having visitors who rent bikes and e-bikes to pay a fee and reserve a spot to ride to the Maroon Bells. Local residents would be excluded from the policy under consideration.