It is well known: There are routes in the Ride tour database that ride through bike bans. Much to the displeasure of some users and individual authorities. Their demand: to remove "illegal" tours from the network. Usually in vain. Because Ride maps tours that are ridden by mountain bikers anyway. With or without an entry in the tour database. With or without a ban. It is an illusion to be able to enforce bike bans by deleting content. Ride chooses the path of transparency in this matter. For tours with an explicit bike ban, this is pointed out in the description text, often supported and supplemented by user comments. It would not be possible to convey this important information if the tours were removed from the database as required.

There is an additional aspect to bike bans: the legal situation is often not as clear as it appears. It is not uncommon for the wish to be the father of the thought, but the legal and planning basis is lacking. One example from recent years is the city of Zurich, according to whose authorities all ride tours on its territory would be illegal. A court ruling put them in their place in 2022 and certified that mountain bikers could ride freely on single trails. Should Ride have deactivated the tours now, simply because the city authorities have been loudly and confidently leading mountain bikers around by the nose for decades?

And then there's the issue of transience. After all, bike bans are not set in stone. They come and they go. Some bans were only created after the tour had already been online on Ride for years. However, the subsequent removal of the tour does not mean: out of sight, out of mind. In addition, bans have also been lifted again. It would be downright bizarre if Ride tours had disappeared into data nirvana because of such official shenanigans.

In light of this, the strategy of transparency is the only right one. Banned tours must not be deleted, but rather the current circumstances must be presented transparently. This benefits all sides and forms a sustainable basis. With the comment function, every single mountain biker or representative of the authorities can also increase this transparency.

More blog posts by Thomas Giger

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