Mackinac Island is facing potential legal action over its ban of many electric bikes.
“I tried to go through the correct channels, I was denied twice. The second time I went, I had a letter of medical necessity. I was still denied. I wasn’t given a reason for the denial,” Hudson said.
That’s terrible. I really hope she wins.
I don’t understand how the city sees this woman, sees her letter of medical necessity, knows she’s been in a terrible accident with serious injury and is trying to get out and enjoy life the ways that she can, and still they refuse to let her ride. I would really like to hear their reasoning.
That island is a weird mix of Disney style tourism, and a rich ® people retreat.
We used to go up and ride tandems around the island in the 80s. The fudge was pretty special at the time too. Worth the constant avoidance of horse shit everywhere on the main drag.
Now the chocolate (Kilwins) is available at most vacation spots east of the Mississippi, and even Texas for some reason, and the road around the island is constantly getting washed out because of the Great Lakes flooding, from the climate disaster that probably 85% of the islands land owners deny exists.
There’s even a ridiculous giant gold Gerald Ford head up there near the scout camp, you know, the guy who pardoned Nixon.
I went back with my son a couple years ago, and decided that was probably the last visit for us. Other places in northern MI are much more beautiful and nicer to visit.
This seems like a no-brainer. A simple case-by-case basis seems very reasonable. I mean I bet they’d allow her to have a motorized wheelchair. And that’s got a throttle and no pedal assist. Plus don’t fuck with the ADA … that’s just wrong.
They are gonna lose that fight against her, lol. They didn’t have snowmobiles, planes or electric mobility scooters in the late 1800s either, haha. And yet, those are allowed. Banning cars is a noble goal. Banning clean forms of transit while still allowing ICE vehicles is kinda crazy.
For reference, Mackinac Island (mac-eh-naw) is part of Michigan, just off the coast in Lake Huron, known for its near-total ban on automobiles. As a result, they appear to have America’s only state highway that prohibits motor vehicles (emergency vehicles excepted).
With that background laid, it is a travesty that an accommodation won’t be made without judicial intervention, limited to just her specific case. Even for an active transportation paradise like Mackinac Island, the experience for everyone else will not be meaningfully diminished just because one person has a Class 2 throttle ebike out of necessity.
I can understand why they might need to go through higher channels with this to ensure that other people can’t take advantage of the ruling. But it’s a shame and unnecessarily dismissive of Hudson that they didn’t work with her through this process, especially after the second attempt with the letter of medical necessity. That should have flagged for then to give her special attention for this case, even if they couldn’t simply wave it through.
