BOISE — Changes could be coming to the Boise River Greenbelt, as Ada County is proposing a 10 mph speed limit on the popular local bike trail and pathway.
The Ada County Board of Commissioners was supposed to meet Tuesday morning, but after hearing so much public interest on the topic, they decided to postpone it until Aug. 13 at 6 p.m. at the Ada County Courthouse public hearing room.
“The ultimate goal is to have Ada County — every city in Ada County — have the exact same ordinance with an agreement between all partners that it’ll be enforced uniformly throughout,” said Ryan Davidson, Ada County commissioner.
Greenbelt users are divided on the issue. Some said there needs to be more restrictions, but others are worried restrictions might affect their business.
Luke Ten Doeschate, who has biked every day to work for the last 30 years, is starting to worry about safety on the greenbelt.
“I go fairly fast on my road bike, but I’m getting people flying by me on some of these electric vehicles,” Doeschate said.
He said people riding too fast are caused by two things: The greenbelt is getting renovated to have smoother surfaces and eliminate natural speed bumps, like tree roots. He also said the increased use of electric vehicles, when they aren’t used properly, is contributing to the problem.
However, Doeschate said he doesn’t think there should be a speed limit everywhere, but more in highly trafficked areas.
Ben Berquist, who owns I Get Around bike store in Boise, said he isn’t opposed to having a speed limit in congested areas. Overall, however, he thinks there needs to be signage to tell people when to slow down rather than laws that could be hard to enforce.
“People are trying to get from one side to the other end, while everyone wants to be courteous, a lot of the time that people are responsible, most irresponsible about stuff like that, then that really creates the hazards that we see,” Berquist said.
The greenbelt is 25 miles long and runs mostly parallel to the Boise River from Lucky Peak in Ada County, through the city of Boise, Garden City and Eagle. The tree-lined stretch follows the north and south sides of the river through the heart of Boise and provides scenic views, wildlife habitat and pedestrian access to many of the area’s popular parks, according to the city’s website.
A public meeting memo sent out by Ada County this week said the number and types of users on the greenbelt has increased dramatically over the years. They include cyclists, walkers, runners, dog owners, parents with strollers, and people commuting to work on their bikes, the county said.
“It is a wonderful community asset with a lot of dedicated users,” the memo stated. “Along with a marked increase in traffic of all kinds has come numerous instances of uncontrolled speed causing accidents and making some users feel uncomfortable and unsafe.”
A 2022 Idaho Press story looked at the bustling greenbelt seeing an increase in all types of traffic, including electric bikes. It included that some residents are concerned about how the increased presence of e-bikes will affect safety on the narrow, often congested pathway.
The article also stated that there has also been a general uptick in greenbelt traffic that began during the pandemic, in part because of population growth and in part because people were looking to get outside their homes.
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