The Beltline is Atlanta’s Wild West. Who is going to tame it?

About a year ago, I bought an e-bike to cycle around the city, and it completely changed my relationship with the Atlanta Beltline. 

Like most people, I started out using the trail as a pedestrian. Atlanta isn’t known for its pedestrian infrastructure, but the so-called “Emerald Necklace” is a walking and riding paradise. If I really wanted to walk, I could head from Krog Street Market to Piedmont Park. It would just take a while. 

But after a few years, I got tired of renting shareable e-bikes and e-scooters and decided to take the plunge on a personal electric bicycle. It changed everything. The Beltline became the easiest way to get around, and I started seeing the 22-mile loop as transportation instead of a pleasant amenity. 

I also started to notice things. Specifically, an “anything goes” mentality on the Beltline. Dogs would run around off-leash. Tourists would crowd in groups of ten in the middle of the path. Locals would wander out of bars and drunk-drive a Lime scooter, sometimes two people on one device. It can be chaos.

So somewhere along the line, I became a bit of a Beltline stickler. There are official rules to the Beltline, but there are also informal standards to the Beltline. Nobody seems to know about either. 

With almost 2.5 million visitors a year and ever-growing popularity, the Beltline has become the city’s Wild West — there are even cowboys and horses to prove it. So how can city leaders establish order on Atlanta’s untamed crown jewel? 

There are a few solutions. Recently, the Beltline kicked off a major education campaign on trail etiquette called “Easy as ABC: Atlanta Beltline Courtesy.” The campaign is focused on some of the unofficial Beltline standards, like keeping the trails clean or staying alert to avoid accidents. 

It also emphasizes some of the more consistent Beltline faux pas: Keep right to let faster traffic pass by, walk only in twos and don’t block the trail, keep pets leashed and park scooters at their designated spaces. 

“There’s so much more around common courtesy that’s beyond the trail rules,” Beltline Real Estate and Asset Management Vice President David Pierce said. 

But Pierce explained the Beltline has limited power. Once the Beltline constructs a segment, it turns the land over to the City of Atlanta, where it becomes part of Parks and Recreation. As an official city park, it’s beholden to a list of rules that are displayed at every trail entrance. 

The official rules include things like no horses at any time, no motorized vehicles, no alcohol, no smoking and no selling items. 

“We don’t have any real enforcement powers around trail rules, but we obviously care about keeping the Beltline a safe and enjoyable experience for people,” Pierce explained. “I think education goes hand in hand with enforcement.” 

The “ABC” campaign features new signage and etiquette pop-ups along the packed Eastside trail, where staff engaged Beltline users with the unofficial standards. The program works in tandem with the Atlanta Beltline Ambassador Program, launched in June, which increases Beltline presence along the path to keep the trail clean and safe. 

Through an education campaign, Beltline officials hope to raise awareness for locals and tourists alike, especially as Atlanta gears up to bring in an estimated 300,000 visitors for the FIFA World Cup in summer 2026.

“You can’t really legislate some of the things people need to do right to behave responsibly on the Beltline,” Pierce said. 

For Pierce, the biggest issue is speed: “People need to learn how to slow down.” 

For seasoned Beltline users, speed is a known issue. E-bikes operate on a class system, with Class 1 and Class 2 bikes reaching a maximum speed of 20 miles per hour. Class 3 bikes can reach up to 28 miles per hour, and dirt bikes can reach up to 60 miles per hour. Only Class 1 and 2 bikes are allowed on the Beltline. 

Atlanta can enforce what devices are allowed on the Beltline, but it’s harder to enforce the top speeds of a personal bike or scooter. Shareable e-bikes and scooters are a different story. 

In 2025 alone, the Atlanta Department of Transportation reported that people had taken more than 3 million trips on Lime and Bird devices alone. It’s a 20 percent increase from the year before. The green and blue scooters and bikes are scattered all around the city, simple to use and relatively inexpensive. 

“We’re building the type of infrastructure where that mode does well,”  ATLDOT Mobility Planning Director John Saxton said. “Atlanta can be a lovely place to live and experience, especially if you’re outside of a car.” 

The transportation mode is particularly popular on the Beltline, where ATLDOT and the private companies have created “corrals” and parking zones to drop off and rent out the vehicles. Of course, popularity leads to rule-breaking. Any Beltline regular could report at least a few incidents of shared scooters or drunk bike riders. 

Those are harder to regulate, but when the Atlanta Beltline approached ATLDOT about speed, the agency worked to cap how fast the rentable rides could go. Previously, there was a 12-mile-per-hour speed cap on the Eastside trail, largely to help congestion. Now, from 4–10 p.m. and weekends, the speed is capped at eight miles per hour. At off-peak hours, the cap is 10 miles per hour. 

But Saxton said shareable devices account for only five to 10 percent of all trips, and the vast majority of people are walking or using personal devices on the trail. He also pointed out that the devices are still a lot safer than cars or riding in areas without strong infrastructure. 

“Like, 99.99 percent, or something to that effect, of trips are safe and result in no injuries for us from a department perspective,” Saxton said.

Still, the Beltline is a little bit lawless. Just a few weeks ago, a tandem scooter couple wiped out directly in front of my bicycle. I almost ran them over, even though I was keeping to the speed limit. Still, Beltline leaders are optimistic: they think a sustained education campaign will help with the trail’s growing pains. 

“I think one of the reasons the Beltline has been so successful is that it’s given Atlanta and visitors a new way to experience the city, but with any new experience comes learning how to responsibly enjoy that experience,” Pierce said. 

As I chatted with Beltline representatives at the pop-up, one told me of a recent encounter with one of the ever-present rule breakers. She was at dinner with friends when a gaggle of horses popped up across from Hawkers Asian Street Food, right on the Eastside trail. 

She told the friends the horse was definitely against the rules, and they told her she’s a party-pooper. I told her she needs to keep it up, especially since most people aren’t even aware of the rules, despite passing a park rule sign every time they walk onto the path. 

Knowing the Beltline rules is about paying attention, and the etiquette campaign can help. But following the rules requires a bit of party-pooping, even if it’s annoying to leash a pet or get off a scooter after one too many Ladybird cocktail pouches.

Nobody wants the Beltline party to end, but if we want the fun to continue, we must tame the Wild West. One rule-follower at a time. Get out there, learn some courtesy, and be a good Beltline user.