The Jackson Town Council voted unanimously to create a 15 mph speed limit on pathways within town limits.
Jackson Hole Middle School student Grady Lewis, 13, maneuvers his dad’s e-bike through traffic cones last summer during an e-bike safety class at the school. Jackson Town Council members approved a recommendation that the program be hired out to a third party.
The Jackson Town Council voted unanimously to create a 15 mph speed limit on pathways within town limits.
Jackson’s e-bikes should be moving slower by spring.
Town councilors voted unanimously Monday to create a 15 mph speed limit on pathways within town limits, adding signage throughout the pathways, and, lastly, implementing “chicane” gates to slow down riders in high-traffic areas like ballfields.
These recommendations were compiled by the town and county joint Pathways Task Force, the volunteer advisory board, and included input from Friends of Pathways and other community groups.
Councilors also said they’d like to see education at Jackson Hole Middle School and bike shops through a third-party contractor.
Pavement resurfacing was recommended but put on the back burner for now, as funding is sought through “outside sources” for the $210,770 item. Also not approved: a required age limit to carry passengers and mandatory dismount zones.
Brian Schilling, pathways coordinator for the Town of Jackson and Teton County, presented the recommendations Monday evening in a “Pathway Safety and E-Bike Usage” workshop for the Town Council.
The Council asked Pathways a year ago to look into problems on the pathways and present recommendations.
The approved items will be implemented by next spring, Schilling said.
Much of the discussion focused on middle schoolers. The staff report provided by Schilling identified middle school kids as the “primary target audience,” adding in the report that one of the “most common areas of complaint received by the Pathways office is in regards to middle school-aged kids on e-bikes.”
Council members approved Schilling’s recommendation that the middle school bike safety program be hired out to a third party, as well as developing education for bike shops, such as a mandatory short video or bike etiquette questionnaire for folks renting or purchasing a bike.
“My personal biggest fear on our pathway system are the folks who haven’t ridden a bike in 20 years, and they come to Jackson and they’re on vacation,” Schilling said in the meeting. “They want to ride from town to Teton Village, and they get on this powerful e-bike and they go really fast with zero bike skills.”
The eight recommendations were developed with input from the Pathways Task Force, Friends of Pathways, and with “extensive input from town staff such as the police department, legal department and Parks and Rec itself,” Schilling said.
The recommendations focused on three “E’s” — education, engineering (or infrastructure) and enforcement, each chosen with “feasibility and effectiveness,” in mind.
Turning their eye to the budget and cost of implementing the recommendations, Schilling said the proposed regulatory costs would be incurred by the town with the the educational costs potentially coming out of the Pathways budget. However, it’s possible the education segment as well as the infrastructure costs might be shared between the town, county and donations.
Estimates given in the workshop stated the police department would be patrolling the pathways 220 hours annually for the first year, with that becoming less significant in following years.
Jackson Hole Middle School student Grady Lewis, 13, maneuvers his dad’s e-bike through traffic cones last summer during an e-bike safety class at the school. Jackson Town Council members approved a recommendation that the program be hired out to a third party.
Schilling added that e-bikes had already been purchased by the police department, and they would be outfitted with speed-detecting radar guns.
Two police officers are now patrolling, and Police Chief Michelle Weber said that’s been off to a “great start.” But Weber would like to see one “disconnect” addressed, with regulatory efforts not just occurring in the town but also in the county.
The enforcement of juvenile citations would be “at the discretion of the county attorney’s office,” Schilling said in the meeting.
Chicane gates were recommended to enforce the “slow-zones” near the ballfields and Garaman Park. The gates slow traffic by forcing riders to go through a serpentine turn. The infrastructure items, such as the additional signage and the chicane gates, “have the highest upfront costs,” Schilling said. However, the Garaman Foundation has “expressed interest in providing funding for things like surfacing the pavement,” he said.
Aside from cost, the staff resources necessary to implement the items were also discussed, one of the reasons the council agreed to hire a contractor for the education effort in the middle school.
The police department would have to commit the bulk of the hours required for these items, Schilling said, adding that there would also be more work for the legal department, the courts, Parks and Recreation and Friends of Pathways.
Schilling said the stakeholders did discuss whether e-bikes should be banned from pathways outright, but that was ultimately deemed not appropriate.
“Knowing the investment that this community has made into e-bikes, that would probably come with a lot of criticism,” Schilling said.
Council member Jonathan Schechter asked how the efficacy of the policies would be judged.
“How do we as policymakers understand the scope of the problem, or what exactly the problem is?” Schechter said.
Schilling acknowledged that evaluating recommendations is “challenging.”
Whereas speed is a discrete measure, Shilling said, crashes are sometimes but not always reported to police.
“I don’t have good data on that,” he said.
For the education program, Schilling suggested a closer look at efficacy, such as counting the number of kids Pathways contacts through its education efforts.
Everyone should also feel welcome on the pathways, “even during the middle school rush hour,” Schilling said, an issue that was brought up repeatedly during public comment.
“At this point my husband won’t even walk on the pathway here because it is so dangerous.” —Dee Buckstaff, pathway neighbor
Schechter asked whether the town has the ability to require kids to have a permit or a license to ride e-bikes.
Police Chief Michelle Weber said the e-bike permitting process has been in place since 2018.
Right now anyone with a class one, two or three e-bike is required to get a permit for their bike within 30 days of purchasing, Weber said.
“They come in and fill out a form, and all the information is kept at the police department,” Weber said.
Schilling said Jackson Hole Middle School also requires a parking sticker.
“In order to park your bike at the middle school, you have to complete the pathway safety course and successfully pass the test,” Schilling said.
Katherine Dowson, executive director of Friends of Pathways, said she’d like to see parents become more involved.
“They need to wake up a bit. If they do have any bike that’s being used, they really need to sit down just as if it was a family car,” she said. “I had a mother say to me a couple of days ago, ‘My son has received four warnings for not stopping at the stop sign. Please give him a ticket.’”
Dee Buckstaff, who lives near Russ Garaman Park, where it’s common to see middle schoolers rushing to or from school, encouraged councilors to keep up the regulations.
“I see the most frightening things every single day. At this point, my husband won’t even walk on the pathway here because it is so dangerous. So I really appreciate the work that you’re doing,” Buckstaff said.
Contact Kate Ready at 732-7076 or kready@jhnewsandguide.com.
Kate Ready covers criminal justice and emergency news. Originally from Denver, Kate studied English Literature at UC Berkeley and is excited to bring her love for the mountains and storytelling to Jackson.
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