eBikes And Horse-Drawn Carriages Don't Always Mix At Acadia National Park

A crush of bikes -- both muscle-powered and eBikes -- has created conflicts with horse-drawn carriages in Acadia National Park/NPS file

When John D. Rockefeller Jr. went to work a century ago constructing a network of carriage roads at Acadia National Park, he envisioned bucolic paths where riders and horse-drawn carriages could travel blissfully, away from motorized vehicles. The National Park Service embraced these roads, and for years banned "motor vehicles" from "any road specially designated or constructed for horse-drawn vehicular traffic, except duly authorized work cars."

Today, however, riders on questionably legal, and definitely illegal, motorized bikes on those roads are spooking and even harassing horses that pull visitors serenely through the park.

Horse-drawn carriages in years past have had some conflicts with muscle-powered bikes that legally use the carriage roads, but the arrival of eBikes late last summer has led to more contentious issues this year. Some eBike riders at times rapidly come up and pass horse-drawn carriages, and then veer sharply in front of the horses. Others slap the horses on their flanks or run their hands along the steeds, said Emily Carpenter, manager of Carriages of Acadia, which offers carriage rides from May to October and also offers boarding for equestrians who want to explore the 45 miles of carriage paths on their own mounts.

"There’s just so much more congestion on the carriage roads with horses, bikes, and now eBikes," she said last week. "The issues we are having aren’t with the ones that are legal, but we’re seeing a lot of illegal eBikes, and there’s no place that they’re checking them. So you’ve got the ones that are out there that have actual throttles on them, and they’re flying by us going uphill.”

Though motorized vehicles, including eBikes, long have been prohibited from navigating the carriage paths, in August 2019 Interior Secretary David Bernhardt ordered the National Park Service to open access for the motorized bikes to any routes that traditional bikes could take. In issuing the order, which is being challenged on the grounds that it was improperly issued, Bernhardt said the decision "simplifies and unifies regulation of electric bicycles (eBikes) on Federal lands managed by the Department and also decreases regulatory burden."

In reality, though, at least at Acadia, the rule change has led to a rush of eBike users to the carriage roads and created a burden for a park that doesn't have enough rangers to be everywhere. And while the rules specify that only Class 1 eBikes, those that are pedal-assist only, with no throttle, and have a maximum assisted speed of 20 mph, can take to the carriage roads, Carpenter and others say they've seen Class 2 throttle-assisted eBikes.

“We’ve had issues with some bicycles for years, whether they were eBikes or (traditional)," she said last week. "It isn’t necessary everybody on bikes or eBikes, just the people who are not following the rules. But, we’ve just seen a marked difference since we’ve now added a motor to some of the people that already were being jerks on regular bikes."

Shortly after Bernhardt issued his order a year ago, Lauren Cosgrove, Northeast program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, voiced a prophetic warning of potential problems that could result from eBikes on the carriage roads.

“Without properly evaluating impacts, and without adequate time for the public process to help inform this decision, the park is opening itself to unnecessary visitor conflicts," she said at the time. "Consistently named as one of the most visited national parks in the country, people travel from all over the world to experience Acadia National Park and especially at this time of year. Now a place where visitors go to walk, hike and ride to find solitude and to escape the sights and sounds of the modern world will be mixed with bikes that could buzz by, traveling up to 20 miles per hour.

“Monitoring and enforcing eBike use will be extremely challenging given Acadia’s already high visitation and limited resources. This administration continues to put pressure on park managers to submit to policies that are at odds with proven management that protect park resources and the visitor experience. More research is needed to determine where and how eBikes can be used safely and what costs these vehicles could have on the park and the more than 3.5 million people that visit Acadia each year.”

The eBikes and other motorized vehicles -- Carpenter has seen Segways (which are allowed if they're for ADA use) and electric Razor scooters -- can make it difficult for the carriage drivers, in part because they're so silent the drivers don't always hear them until they're alongside the carriages. Getting horses used to the different bikes and scooters is a challenge, too, said Carpenter.

"It’s all different movements, it all can tend to be a little alarming," she explained. "There’s no way for us to get them used to everything because we don’t know what we’re going to meet out there."

An even greater problem is with some of the riders, on both traditional bikes and eBikes.

"My horses have been smacked by bicyclists, they’ve been run into by bicyclists on purpose," said Carpenter. “Our horses are amazing. They should kick them. Most horses would kick out or bolt and cause a runaway with passengers in (the carriage). That’s my fear. Riding horses, they're going to spook, kick, trip, bolt. I’ve had kids fall off on their bikes right next to the horses. Obviously, there’s only so much we can do. We’ve had a couple horses kick out but not land a kick on somebody when they’ve actually smacked them."

At Acadia, public affairs specialist Christie Anastasia said there even was a motorcyclist on the carriage roads recently.

"They (Carriages of Acadia) have been having a disproportionate increase in negative interactions with eBikes specifically," said Anastasia. "The interactions have ranged from (cyclists) coming up too quickly from behind and startling the horses, passing too quickly, and then cutting in front of the horses without giving them enough room up to smacking the horse on the butt as they go by.”

Carpenter fears the situation is only going to get worse as the coronavirus pandemic eases and more people travel to Acadia.

"I don’t know what the right answer is. My fear next year is when there’s no pandemic going on and we’re even busier that there’s just going to be so much congestion on the carriage roads with everything, plus now motors. It’s not going to be enjoyable for many people. I don’t want to drive my horses in it. It’s just going to be a matter of time before there’s a bad accident,” she said. "A couple of my guides came back the other day, there’s a short stretch between (the stables) and Jordan Pond, it’s like a 1.3-mile stretch, and one of the girls said that she easily saw 100 bikes on it."

Exactly how much bike traffic has increased this year due to the addition of eBikes is unknown, said Anastasia. For the park to try to police all the traffic on the carriage roads is an impossible challenge at this point. Not only are there 45 miles of the roads, but there are three-dozen different points of entry and exit, she explained. While the park has in the past been aided by a program that sends volunteers out onto the carriages roads to monitor the traffic, it was suspended this year in large part due to Covid-19.

The park's law enforcement rangers, meanwhile, usually are out working in congested areas along the park road, said Anastasia, adding that, "I’m sure they could write lots of tickets, but they would have to be there to do that." 

In the wake of Bernhardt's directive to the Park Service, the question of where it would be appropriate for eBikes to travel was raised, something Carpenter pointed out last week.

"The whole point of building the carriage roads was that there would be a safe place to ride and drive your horses and walk," she said. "So it’s a little frustrating that now we’re seeing so much congestion, and potential accidents and stuff that we can’t necessarily control.”

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