What Other Jurisdictions Are Doing
From: Wakefield A Model for Night Mountain Bike Riding
ATTACHMENT #4
Benchmarking With Other Jurisdictions
Staff contacted other jurisdictions, both locally and nationally, to determine how they are dealing with the issue of night riding.
There seems to be no consistency locally or nationally with what other state and local governments are doing as far establishing a night riding policy. If there is a policy on night riding it seems to be dictated mostly by local influences. In one state, two different parks within close proximity to each other had completely opposite policies on night riding.
The results of the surveys of different jurisdictions resulted in five categories that the majority followed:
- Don't See, Don't Tell - This is basically how FCPA has handled this issue at this point and how about 50% of the jurisdictions surveyed are handling night riding. Park rangers/managers know that night riding occurs even when the park policy is that it is closed at dark and continue to allow it because there have been no known issues resulting from the activity.
- No Restriction - This seems obvious but when there is no restriction on night activities, there is no restriction on night riding. The best example of this is the National Forests. For example, at G.W. National Forest the only restriction on night activities is in "day use" areas. These areas are like picnic areas, visitor centers, and overlooks. All other areas are open 24 hours per day thus no problem with night riding.
- Not Permitted - In the parks where there are restrictions on night activity, no activity is allowed. Although it seemed a lot of areas had this policy, when they did, most followed the "don't see, don't tell" policy. It was rare that the "no activity" policy was strictly enforced. Most jurisdictions stated that because of lack of funding it was difficult to "police" parks at the level necessary to be effective. The exception to this was the county owned lands designated as "open space" in many Colorado counties. In this case they allowed all activities to occur until one hour after sunset. This does allow for limited night riding but after that time they strictly enforce that people vacate the areas.
- Approval Basis - Night riding is allowed to groups on a call in basis to the ranger or park manager. In these cases, about 10% of those surveyed, a group can schedule a night ride on random dates with approval. In these cases no formal permit is done, generally just a note in the log that the activity will take place and in some cases a park ranger is kept on later to lock up and monitor the ride.
- Fixed Schedule Basis - Night riding is allowed on given days or dates and may be on a permit issued basis. This seemed to be the policy of choice for parks that were in heavy population areas, or have a lot of use and needed to establish a policy to mitigate user conflict. Some of the best examples of these are in our area and seem to be successful once established. The success of this method seemed to have little if any bearing on whether or not a permit was issued but the fact that days and times were established and enforced seemed to be the key to the programs success.
The information gathered supports the staff recommendation, with a question as to whether a permit is necessary. Most areas using a plan similar to the recommendation said that it was difficult to tell if on any given ride night if persons were signing up and riding or just riding on those given days. It made me think perhaps one way of simplifying this process and still accomplishing the desired end result would be to have MORE establish a bike patrol similar to a ski patrol. They could still do their organized rides but would ensure patrols on given ride nights. This would allow for more flexibility for the riders and would take into account varying time availability and differing skill levels. Risk Management has endorsed the permit approach as a way to transfer risk and liability.
Below are some examples of the variety of responses to our survey. As you can see there is a real variety in what others are doing.
MARYLAND
Gambrill State Park - Bike trails are always open, no restriction on night riding. No problems reported.
Schaeffer State Park - Night riding is allowed to groups if they call ahead. Staff then passes times and dates along to the park rangers so they know it is authorized. No problems reported.
Seneca Creek State Park - No night riding allowed. No problems reported.
VIRGINIA
Fountainhead - Night riding allowed on a pre arranged scheduled dates and times with MORE, usually two times per month. No problems reported.
G.W. National Forest - Riding is allowed any time, night riding is allowed and accepted. No problems reported.
Douthat State Park - Quite time is 10:00 pm and no riding is allowed after that time. They do acknowledge that night riding continues after 10:00 pm but it has not been a problem. This falls in that don' see, don't tell area. No problems reported.
Danville Parks and Recreation - Night riding is allowed on Thursday nights only, no permit required. No problems reported.
COLORADO
Colorado Counties - On the counties/cities that bordered the Front Range, such as Golden, Jefferson County, Bolder, and Colorado Springs, they all had the same policy, one hour after sunset. This applies to county owned "open space" land. This policy does allow for some night riding, although limited, but has not received a lot of complaints. This is probably due to the fact that there is a lot of land owned by the National Parks that has no night restrictions.
Colorado National Parks - Riding is allowed anytime, night riding is allowed and accepted. No problems reported.
ARIZONA
Red Rock State Park - Closed at 8:00pm, no riding allowed after closing.
Red Rock National Park - Riding is allowed anytime, night riding is allowed and accepted. No problems reported.
Maricopa County Parks - Of the two parks I checked they were split. White Tank Mountain allowed night riding on a permitted basis yet San Tan Park is closed at dark with no night riding allows.
