(Source: MIRS.news, Published 04/17/2024) M-185, the state highway circling the car-less Mackinac Island, will have a speed limit of 15 miles per hour under legislation approved by the Senate on Tuesday. The legislation aims to regulate electric bicycles, with some capable of reaching 40 miles an hour.
"The speed limit is governed by state regulations, and there's a portion of it where the speed limit defaults to 55 miles an hour, and this has never been an issue before because Mackinac Island doesn't allow automobiles and bikes can't go that fast," said bill sponsor Sen. John DAMOOSE (R-Harbor Springs). "But with the advent of E-bikes, some of them going 30–40 miles an hour, it's become a real problem."
Speaking on his SB 682, Damoose said M-185 on the island consists of a narrow road, covered with horses, kids learning how to ride bicycles with training wheels and "tourists staring at everything." He said the island's local government is unable to institute its own speed limit for the highway, with statute providing such authorities to legislators.
SB 682, which passed in the Senate this week 31-5, would also further reduce the speed limit to 10 miles per hour in the island's business district – the downtown area that the highway goes through.
According to the Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau, E-bikes are technically not permitted on the island, unless they're being used by a visitor with a qualifying "mobility disability." Under the exception, those visitors must use "Class 1" E-bikes, with a maximum speed of 20 miles an hour.
Damoose said the island's government has attempted to ban electric bicycles, but hasn't been successful and has struggled with enforcement. He described how the ban raises questions about what happens to the bike once it reaches the island, and if bicycles should be inspected as they're being placed on the busy ferries.
"So speed limits are easy…there's precedent for it. It's the same way we handle cars and these type of things," he said, explaining that there are "bike police, and they can have their own sirens there and radar guns work on bikes and, again, I don't think they're looking to enforce this just like our driving laws . . . they need some tools so they can get rid of the dangerous bikers."
The island on Lake Huron is one of Michigan's major tourist destinations during the summer, and outside of a few emergency vehicles, automobiles are prohibited. According to the island's tourism bureau, 37 Mackinac Islands could fit within the city limits of Detroit, with the state park making up more than 80 percent of the island's 3.8 square-miles of land.
While providing supportive testimony to the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Feb. 13, Mackinac Island Mayor Margaret Doud, who's served in the role since 1975, said via Zoom that the island experienced 63 serious bike accidents in 2022 and 61 in 2023.
"Some of those are extremely serious, others are not as bad, but you have to realize that even riding around the island is very congested because we have horses out there as well as in the downtown area," Doud said. "This speed limit is especially needed now in a time of E-bikes, but this bill does and should apply to all bikers and to all parts of the state highway."
Damoose said he hopes the legislation is approved in time for the summer tourism season.
According to one report featured on TheRoundup.org, an environmental sustainability website, yearly E-bike sales are projected to grow to 17 million by 2030, and in 2021, the overall E-bike market was valued at $27.22 billion. Moreover, between 2021 and 2022, the average cost of an E-bike became 10 percent cheaper.
SB 682 was opposed by Sens. Joseph Bellino Jr. (R-Monroe), Roger Hauck (R-Union Twp.), Michele Hoitenga (R-Manton), Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) and Jonathan Lindsey (R-Brooklyn).
During the February hearing, Matthew Penniman, the advocacy director for the League of Michigan Bicyclists, opposed the bill, arguing that currently it feels like the bill treats bikes as if they were more dangerous than cars.
"It's allowing the city of Mackinac Island to set their own speed limit effectively, but not allowing any other city to do the same. Mackinac has a pretty good pedestrian safety record. The only recent fatality I was able to find was in 2016. There was a 79-year-old woman riding her bike, who suddenly swerved and crashed, and was run over by a horse-drawn carriage," Penniman said. "While that's tragic, it doesn't really seem like the thing that a speed limit would have prevented."
He added that not all E-bikes have speedometers, and it could be difficult for riders to track their speed as they reach the north side of the island, where they're more likely to have a broad area away from pedestrians to bring up their speed.
