E-Bike Rules: Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District

The rules, line by line

The agency that ran a pilot and then said no

Most California e-bike pilots have ended in expanded access, or are still running. Midpeninsula is the clear counter-example: it ran a pilot from December 2020 to June 2022, evaluated it, and then affirmed the prohibition and made it permanent.

That is worth recording precisely because the prevailing assumption is that access expands over time. Midpen looked at its own evidence and reached the opposite conclusion — and unlike the county pilot statutes in Veh. Code §§ 21214.5 and 21214.7, which sunset on January 1, 2029, this policy has no expiry.

The sharpest jurisdictional discontinuity in California

Midpen's preserves sit directly alongside land governed by agencies with radically different rules.

A rider can cross from Santa Clara County Parks land, where Class 1 and Class 2 are permitted on dirt trails at 15 mph, onto a Midpen preserve where e-bikes are prohibited outright — with nothing on the ground marking the boundary.

If Palo Alto's reported § 22.04.220 is accurate, the contrast is starker still: the city's own open space would admit all three classes on unpaved trails while the adjacent district admits none.

This is the clearest illustration of the structural problem. Veh. Code § 21207.5(b) gives each agency with jurisdiction over an equestrian, hiking or recreational trail independent authority to prohibit e-bikes by class. Nothing requires neighboring agencies to coordinate, and they have not.

The ADA carve-out is the most generous in California

Midpen permits e-bikes wherever bicycles are allowed as an "other power-driven mobility device" for visitors with a mobility disability — a term of art from the ADA's Title II regulations.

That is a meaningful accommodation and it goes further than most agencies' exemptions. Comparable provisions: Carlsbad (CMC § 10.56.060, disabled persons per the ADA), Santa Monica (SMMC § 3.12.600(h)–(i)), Laguna Beach (LBMC § 10.02.020(b)), Coronado (ADA devices permitted throughout its otherwise comprehensive ban), El Segundo (electric and motorized wheelchairs and four-wheel mobility scooters exempt), and the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, which permits e-bikes only as OPDMDs.

The design logic is sound: the objection to e-bikes on a narrow trail is speed and rider behavior, not the presence of a motor. Someone who needs assistance to be on the trail at all is a different case, and Midpen's policy says so.

What this means practically

If you ride a Class 1 e-bike and live on the Peninsula, your legal off-street options are narrow:

• Ravenswood and Rancho San Antonio preserves, on limited improved trails.
• Santa Clara County Parks — Class 1 and Class 2 on Class 1 bikeways, paved and dirt, at 15 mph, with helmets under 18.
• Public roads and parking areas within Midpen preserves.
• City streets and bike lanes everywhere, under state law.

And the practical consequence Midpen's critics point to: a rider who cannot manage the terrain without assistance is excluded from roughly 160 miles of public open space, unless they qualify under the OPDMD provision.

Verification note

The policy number 4.07 and the detailed provisions come from a Town of Los Gatos staff-report survey — a reasonably authoritative but secondary source. The underlying Board Report R-22-78 and the district's own trail-use pages corroborate the substance, but the policy number itself is unverified.

Common questions

Sources

• Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District — E-Bike Policy Evaluation
• Board Report R-22-78 — Electric Bicycle Policy Evaluation (PDF)
• Midpen — Trail Use and Regulations
• San Mateo Daily Journal — E-bike ban on 160 miles of Peninsula trails will remain