While governments rush to convert drivers from gas to electric cars, perhaps some of their money and attention would be better spent motivating the public to switch to electric bikes.
Benefits of Electric Bikes
In many respects, e-bikes are a much better alternative than electric cars. They are far cheaper to build, buy, and maintain than electric cars. Even if you pay $3,000 to $5,000 for a better-quality e-bike, that’s only a fraction of what you’ll likely pay for a new electric car. A new Tesla in the U.S. will cost you from $48,190 to $67,190, depending on model.
E-bikes are more equitable and inclusive than cars, providing a relatively cheap form of transportation for those who cannot afford to buy or maintain cars. You may think that everyone owns a car, but that is not the case. About nine percent of American adults, or 23 million people, do not own a car, and that percent is considerably higher in many urban areas. For lower-income families, even if they own a car the cost of maintaining it is getting increasing difficult. A Bankrate survey found that 63 percent of Americans do not have enough savings to pay for a $500 car repair bill. Add to that the high costs for auto insurance and gas.
E-bikes also take up less space on roads and in congested big cities. Electric cars won’t help congestion in major cities; greater e-bike adoption will. Plus, e-bikes are far healthier for drivers and can reduce a nation’s healthcare costs and improve productivity.
No one is suggesting that electric bicycles are going to replace cars, SUVs, and light trucks. They remain the best option for traveling longer distances or hauling heavier cargo. There’s still a strong case to be made for electric-powered cars and light trucks to replace the gas-guzzling, high-polluting vehicles that dominate the roads today.
Electric or gas, cars play an important role in transportation planning, but we are far too dependent on them. The majority of car trips in urban areas are for short-distance errands that could easily be managed on an e-bike. A study by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics found that 69 percent of car trips are for two miles or less, a distance easy to cover with an e-bike. For most people, electric bikes are a viable option for commuting or running errands for even slightly longer trips, ranging from three to five miles.
Is an E-Bike the New Second Car?
For many families, especially those living in urban environments, it is reasonable to assume that an electric bike may at least be able to replace their second car. E-bikes are far more practical and versatile than traditional bikes. You can buy lightweight, folding e-bikes perfectly suited for carrying on trains and commuting to work in downtown business districts. You can buy larger, heavier e-bikes designed for carrying small children to school or parks, or for hauling cargo. The possibilities are endless.
Think how much money a family could save by using e-bikes instead of a second car. First, the cost to buy an e-bike (or two) is far less than the cost of buying a second car, even a good used one. Imagine how it could improve a family’s expenses to not be saddled with a large monthly car payment. Second, the family will save money on their auto insurance by removing one car from the policy. Next, with an e-bike there are no more worries about the price of gas – or even gas shortages. Finally, the annual maintenance cost for an e-bike is tiny compared with that for a car.
Beyond the financial benefits of electric bikes, riding an e-bike more and driving a car less means better health and fitness. If enough people made the switch, it could have a significant impact on society as a whole. More bike riding would mean reduced obesity rates, improved heart health, fewer people diagnosed each year with Type 2 diabetes, and more. Traffic fatalities would also be reduced.
Then there’s the potential benefit to the environment. Right now, emissions from gas-powered cars and trucks are a significant contributor to the rise in greenhouse gases, which scientists believe is causing global warming and catastrophic disruptions to our weather patterns. Just look at the heat wave currently being experienced his summer across much of the U.S., the UK, and Europe, accompanied by unprecedented drought and fires.
How to Motivate More People to Use E-bikes
Encouraging more people to rely less on cars and more on cycling needs to be a higher priority for governments worldwide, including North America. For the most part, in the U.S. and Canada riding a bike is still viewed as primarily a recreational or exercise activity. While attitudes are changing in some cities and regions, in general bicycles are not yet viewed in North America as a serious means of transportation that should be actively promoted with significant transportation and infrastructure spending.
Here are two ways governments can help with the transition to e-bikes as a serious component of transportation planning:
# 1 – Financial incentives
The federal government offers tax incentives of up to $7,500 for the purchase of qualified new electric cars, but nothing for electric bikes. It’s time for this policy to change. If you want to encourage more people to ride e-bikes for transportation purposes, then offer tax incentives for buying an e-bike. President Biden’s Build Back Better legislation includes tax incentives for e-bike buyers but as of the publication date of this story it has yet to pass in both houses of Congress.
Given the federal government’s lack of action, some cities have moved ahead with their own incentive programs. Denver, for instance, has a highly successful e-bike purchase price rebate program. It offers $400 rebates for all Denver residents, $1,200 for income-qualified residents, and an additional $500 rebate on the purchase of cargo e-bikes.
Canada’s status is similar to the U.S. The Canadian federal government offers tax incentives for electric cars but nothing for electric bikes. Some of Canada’s provinces have stepped up with their own programs. E-bike buyers in Nova Scotia can get a rebate of up to $500. Business owners in British Columbia can qualify for rebates of up to $1,700 for purchase of a cargo e-bike.
According to Electrek.co, several European countries offer incentives. France, for instance, offers a generous rebate program where they will pay citizens the equivalent of nearly $3,000 U.S. dollars to buy an e-bike. To receive the rebate, the person must turn in an older-model gas-powered car to be scrapped.
#2 – Safer biking infrastructure
No matter what incentives the government offers, we will never see a wide-scale move toward bicycling as a transportation option until we build a connected infrastructure of bike trails and lanes where people feel safe to ride. This won’t happen until state/province and federal governments make this a priority and shift needed transportation dollars from car-centric roads to build more and safer bike infrastructure.
Too many cities take the easy way out by merely painting a white line next to the edge of an existing street and labeling it a bike lane. They are then surprised by how few people use the lanes. Seriously? Not many cyclists are going to feel safe riding their bike in a narrow lane just inches away from motorists whizzing past at 30 to 50 mph. Families don’t feel safe using bike lanes. Nor do senior adults. Children can’t use them to commute to school.
Cities need to do their homework and be more creative when it comes to building bike travel infrastructure that people will want to use. Protected bike lanes are one alternative. In contrast with a traditional bike lane, protected bike lanes add a physical barrier between the cyclists and nearby motorists. Ideally, they also add extra width. There are multiple ways to accomplish this, but the photos accompanying this story will give you a few examples.
Separate bike trails, where possible, are the best alternative. With bike trails, interaction with motorists is eliminated or minimized. In most cities, the most workable solution will be an integrated network of multi-use trails and protected bike lanes. Where mass transit is available, bike routes should be developed to allow commuters and other riders to easily use a combination of cycling and trains to move about the town and region.
A growing number of North American cities, including Vancouver, New York City, Portland, and Austin, are making real progress toward building out safe and effective bike infrastructure. Unfortunately, they are still the exceptions. Most North American cities are only timidly approaching this need, devoting far too few dollars and resources to do it right.
For city and state planning officials who want to learn more about how to build safe bike infrastructure that the public will use, here are three excellent resources:
- The National Association of City Transportation Officials: NACTO offers a wealth of resources, from planning guides to training seminars.
- PeopleforBikes: This U.S.-based cycling advocacy organization offers numerous programs to help communities improve their biking infrastructure and usage. While they work with large cities, they also partner with smaller ones that are serious about expanding their cycling universe, such as Benton County, Arkansas.
- The Dutch Cycling Embassy: This organization helps cities worldwide adapt some of the successful practices that have made the Netherlands the bicycling capital of the world. Austin, Texas, and Paris, France, are among the cities that have hired consultants from the Dutch Cycling Embassy to assist with cycling transportation designs.
Make Cycling a Priority
Sure, electric cars like Tesla are pretty cool. I get that. My next car purchase will likely be electric-powered or at least a plug-in hybrid. Still, rather than fixating so heavily on electric cars, maybe we should be talking more as a society about electric bikes. We need to regard cycling as a serious transportation alternative that helps solve many of society’s problems, rather than as merely a form of recreation.
It may be trendy these days to show off your new electric car, but why not really impress your friends by showing up with a new Rad, Trek, Pedego, Gazelle, or whatever brand of e-bike you prefer? E-bikes are the future for environmentally friendly, healthy, inclusive, cost-effective, short-distance urban transportation.
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You May Also Like to Read:
5 Ways E-Bikes Can Save the World
Why Seniors Love Their E-bikes
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