Find Out Exactly How Much Your City Could Benefit By Investing In E-Bikes
From StreetsBlog.org
Curious how much carbon — and cash — you and your neighbors could save if your government went big on electric bikes? Now you can find out.
By Kea Wilson
Advocates and local transportation leaders can now find out exactly how much their community could gain by encouraging residents to swap car trips for e-bike rides — and how much bang for their buck they’re likely to get if they adopt purchase incentives like Denver’s blockbuster rebate program.
With the help of the new “E-Bike Impact Calculator” from the Colorado-based sustainability nonprofit RMI, anyone with an internet connection and a copy of Microsoft Excel can find out exactly how much money, pollution, and electricity their community might save if leaders leveraged good e-bike policy to achieve even modest mode shift goals.
RMI Senior Associate Bryn Grunwald said she created the tool because “people were sleeping on how awesome e-bikes are at the climate level,” and quickly found that the collective benefits were even more significant than she’d realized.
“[E-bikes are] often talked about more at the individualized scale,” she said. “Personally I experienced myself saving money [from riding one]; personally, I experienced myself having a better connection to my city. … But I wanted to give them good numbers, because there’s a lot of people who can’t imagine themselves biking, and really scoff at the idea that it could be good for the climate.”
