WHERE YOU CAN RIDE NOW

In August, U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt issued an order to increase e-bike access to land controlled by the Department of the Interior, including national parks and wildlife refuges. A day later, the National Park Service issued a policy memorandum directing parks to comply as soon as possible.

But the memo gave park superintendents the option of banning ebikes from some bike routes for safety reasons.

Since then, superintendents have scrambled to sort out details and exceptions. At least two dozen national parks have new e-bike rules in place — some with exceptions, some without — and more are expected in coming weeks.

Don’t expect to find e-bikes invading trails set aside for hikers. Nobody has proposed that. But in many parks, they can go everywhere old-fashioned bikes are allowed.

The speed limit on those routes is often 15 mph, a rate that both kinds of bikes routinely surpass when heading downhill.

In the Santa Monica Mountains

National Recreation Area, e-bikes are allowed everywhere that motorless mountain bikes and road bikes go.

In Joshua Tree National Park, all cyclists are forbidden on hiking trails but permitted on roads open to vehicles.

In Death Valley National Park ,ebikes are not mentioned on the “biking” web page most visitors consult, but the park’s compendium — a collection of park-specific rules set by the superintendent — affirms that e-bikes can go anywhere conventional bikes go.

Thus, they’re banned from all trails and wilderness areas and permitted on all roads (paved or gravel) open to the public. They are also permitted on the mile-long path between the Furnace Creek Visitor Center and the Harmony Borax Works.

In Yosemite National Park, all bikes are banned from hiking trails and wilderness areas but allowed on regular roads. And for the moment, e-bikes cannot join conventional bikes on Yosemite Valley’s more than 12 miles of bike paths.

But in coming weeks, when the acting superintendent signs a new park compendium, “We’re going to be regarding e-bikes as bicycles,” said park spokesman Scott Gediman. Until then, he said, “If our law enforcement sees an e-bike on a bike path, that’s fine.”

On April 10, bike rental stands run by Aramark will open for the season at Yosemite Valley Lodge and Curry Village. Spokeswoman Lisa Cesaro said the company has no plans to rent e-bikes.

In Marin County, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area proposed new rules in late September and received public input through late November, but nothing is finalized. That means e-bikes need to stay on the road and off any trails.

Most of the traditional riders I met on my ride in the Marin Headlands — about 20 of them — were in favor of increased access for ebikes.

“Anything that gets someone out of a car and onto a bike is good,” said Eric Smith, 50, of San Francisco. “It creates a bigger constituency of people for cyclists.”

“There’s going to be an accident or two,” said Arthur Fraser, 73, of San Francisco, who has been mountain biking since the 1980s. “The typical e-bike rider is less experienced. They’re more inclined to misjudge. … From a selfish perspective, I’d rather not see it. From a global perspective, it’s opening up these beautiful trails to more people. … As long as they don’t let scooters in.”

In California’s state park system, a spokesman said top officials are still deciding on a systemwide policy; trails are limited to pedestrians unless an individual park superintendent makes an exception.