E-Bike

Ride an e-bike, it’ll change your perspective

From Medium.com

By Connor Hearld

*becoming more eco-conscious*

It sounds fake doesn’t it? Well, also backwards. Riding a bike is supposed to be a healthy move in the right direction. Doesn’t making the bike electric just make it a worse off bike you’d maybe ask yourself?

While I wouldn’t recommend an e-bike for your health needs, assuming you don’t plan on pedaling at all if you have a decent throttle. An e-bike for me has been a great way to stay outdoors. With less time than I used to have and more concern for my own health, I wonder if it’s time to put up my skateboard I used to ride to work and just stick solely to my e-bike.

The electric bike I decided to go with was a Pedal Electric Core 2.0. It’s quite expensive I know, but I figured with not using my vehicle, it makes up for it(I currently have a broken down Ford Focus, one of the worst vehicles in my experience thus far). Obviously it’s not a cost free decision. I still need to pay for the electricity charging my bike as well as the new maintenance that comes with maintaining a bike instead of a car(still need to fix the car).

Getting an e-bike has been a choice of “this will get me by reliably and quickly.” There are better options I’m sure, maybe even cheaper bikes. One of my worries when it comes to the cost of said bike is that you are risking a decent battery.

RadWagon 4 Electric Cargo Bike
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The Real Reason You Should Get an E-bike

From TheAtlantic.com

By Michael Thomas

Today’s happiness and personal-finance gurus have no shortage of advice for living a good life. Meditate daily. Sleep for eight hours a night. Don’t forget to save for retirement. They’re not wrong, but few of these experts will tell you one of the best ways to improve your life: Ditch your car.

A year ago, my wife and I sold one of our cars and replaced it with an e-bike. As someone who writes about climate change, I knew that I was doing something good for the planet. I knew that passenger vehicles are responsible for much of our greenhouse-gas emissions—16 percent in the U.S., to be exact—and that the pollution spewing from gas-powered cars doesn’t just heat up the planet; it could increase the risk of premature death. I also knew that electric cars were an imperfect fix: Though they’re responsible for less carbon pollution than gas cars, even when powered by today’s dirty electric grid, their supply chain is carbon intensive, and many of the materials needed to produce their batteries are, in some cases, mined via a process that brutally exploits workers and harms ecosystems and sacred Indigenous lands. An e-bike’s comparatively tiny battery means less electricity, fewer emissions, fewer resources. They are clearly better for the planet than cars of any kind.

I knew all of this. But I also viewed getting rid of my car as a sacrifice—something for the militant and reckless, something that Greenpeace volunteers did to make the world better. I live in Colorado; e-biking would mean freezing in the winter and sweating in the summer. It was the right thing to do, I thought, but it was not going to be fun.

 

 
RadWagon 4 Electric Cargo Bike

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The Future of Cars Looks a Lot Like an E-Bike

Fromm Inverse.com

BYTOM VANDERBILT

The electric vehicle revolution is already here — sporting two wheels and a pair of pedals.

Transportation, like most human behaviors, is shaped by a mixture of utility, convenience, visibility, and familiarity. As energy-conserving, satisficing humans, we reach for what is easy, what we can see, what we know. Nearly one-third of car trips in America, for example, take us less than one mile. Why not walk or ride a bike? Because our impulse to drive is a virtual muscle memory. Habits, notes Charles Duhigg, “shape our lives far more than we realize — they are so strong, in fact, that they cause our brains to cling to them at the exclusion of all else, including common sense.”

When the bike-share system CitiBike arrived in New York City a decade ago, I immediately and enthusiastically signed up. There was just one problem. The nearest station, in those early days, was precisely a mile from my house. As transportation planners have found, people are generally unwilling to walk more than half a mile to a transit stop — and so was I. The subway, meanwhile, was a block away. As you might imagine, whatever my intentions to embrace the service, I generally defaulted to the easier option. It wasn’t until a bike-share station opened a block away that I became a regular user. My behavior only changed because the context did.

Image courtesy of Cake

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The best electric bikes in 2023, ridden and tested by editors

From CNN.com

By Michael Berk, Tobey Grumet and Mark Knapp, CNN Underscored

E-bikes have taken riders — and the bicycle industry — by storm. These capable, full-featured vehicles can give even the most casual cyclist a boost that lets them get up and over hills that’d challenge a pro, get you to work in style without breaking a sweat and can even realize the promise of using a bike as a car replacement by providing the power to haul passengers or a full load of groceries even if you aren’t spending all your free time in the gym doing squats.

This year, bikes are finally coming back in stock both online and at brick-and-mortar retailers (after a couple of years of supply chain disruptions), so we took a look at what was available in order to figure out what e-bike might work best for your everyday riding — whether that means a lightweight bike for fun and fitness, a dependable commuter, a stowable folder or even a do-it-all utility hauler to cut down on car trips.

The Co-op Cycles Generation e1.1 may be the entry-level model in REI’s house-branded line of e-bikes, but it’s a near-perfect bike for anyone considering an e-bike. It brings together a solid parts package, a smart design and enough power, battery life and hauling capacity to fit the needs — and just plain fit — almost anybody who wants to try riding with a motor assist. It looks great too, coming in a range of understated earth tones and cool colors.

To make things even more attractive, while the price is competitive with direct-to-consumer bikes, you get access to the bike shop support that comes with REI’s nationwide network of brick-and-mortar stores. Many D2C bikes are fantastic, don’t get us wrong, but they do mostly leave you to fend for yourself mechanically, which isn’t great for every new rider.

It’s hard to find fault with the Generation e1.1: REI has done a great job putting together a very compelling proposition for almost any e-bike rider, new or veteran. If you’re in the market for a first e-bike and want something utilitarian you can share with your household, family or friends, or you need a great grocery-getter to have around for when you’re tinkering with your fancy bikes, it should be on your list.

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California E-bike Incentive Project

Program Goals

The California E-Bike Incentive Project aims to provide rebates to reduce the purchase price for e-bikes to income qualified consumers residing in disadvantaged and low-income communities. This project will be designed to help Californians reduce their VMT by lowering barriers to e-bike ownership, as well as to educate Californians about bicycle safety and support local businesses. The purpose of this project aims to 1) help people replace car trips with e-bike trips, 2) increase access to e-bikes, and 3) reduce GHG emissions.

Guiding Legislation/Policy Drivers

The California E-bike Incentive Project originates from Senate Bill 129, which authorizes the California Air Resources Board to create a program that provides financial incentives to purchase e-bikes.

Project Funding/Allocations/History

Currently the program has $13,000,000.

 

Who is eligible to receive funding?

The vouchers are available to California residents 18 or older who have a household income at or below 300% of FPL.

 

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Photo by KBO Bike on Unsplash

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The best electric bikes in 2023 for every type of rider

From TechCrunch.com

By Rebecca Bellan

Commuter, mountain lover, delivery worker? There’s an e-bike for you.

With summer well underway and a federal e-bike incentiveback on the Congress floor, it’s time to start thinking about electric bikes — and what might be the best one for you and your lifestyle.

We’ve rounded up the best e-bikes for your specific needs, whether you’re commuting to work and need to keep your cool, toting around children, delivering pizzas or traversing mountains. How did we make our picks? Our recommendations are based on a combination of our own experience on the bikes, industry research and talking with experts and our readers about what they love to ride.

Our guide is broken up into several categories, starting with the diverse array of cargo bikes. From there we provide recommendations for commuters, seniors, folks looking to scale mountains, people living in small spaces and those who are on a budget.

Best cargo e-bikes

Electric cargo bikes are taking off as people look for ways to carry kids, gear and groceries. At the same time, the rise in e-commerce and fast delivery has led to an uptick in urban couriers delivering everything from pizzas and groceries to headphones and alcohol.

There are two main types of e-cargo bikes: front loaders and rear loaders. Each has its own strengths. Front loaders, for example, are often better if you’re carrying small children or large, bulky items. However, some people might be initially put off by the larger turning circle and the size — they are much longer and require more storage space.

Rear loaders feel more like a normal bike and allow you to stack cargo behind you. When it comes to transporting kids, rear loaders are better for older children who can be trusted to keep their seats.

We’ll break down some of the best cargo bikes we’ve found for different demographics.

Image courtesy of Trek

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E-Bike Rebate Pilot Program: Sustainable energy initiative to launch July 1

From PasadenaWeekly.com

Pasadena Water and Power (PWP), which provides electricity to more than 65,000 customers within the city of Pasadena, has unveiled a new e-bike rebate pilot program that will launch on July 1.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles defines e-bikes as “a bicycle fully equipped with fully operable pedals and an electric motor of less than 750 watts.”

The new pilot rebates will apply to new Class 1, Class 2 and Class 3 e-bikes with a limit of two per PWP residential electric service account. Scooters, mopeds, segways and e-bike conversion kits will not qualify.

The rebate amounts will range from:

• $500 to $1,000 for e-bikes purchased at retailers within Pasadena.

Photo by Gotrax on Unsplash

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It’s Time For Everyone to Stop Ignoring E-Bikes

From TreehHugger.com

By Lloyd Alter

Politicians and planners are missing the e-bike revolution with their preoccupation with e-cars. Even the climate activists at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26) did it. Now BloombergNEF’s Electric Vehicle Outlook for 2022 has been released and—surprise!—it ignores e-bikes.

It’s big on 2- and 3-wheelers (the mopeds, scooters, and tuk-tuks you find in Asia) and notes the staggering difference between the size of the e-car fleet compared to 2- and 3-wheeled electric vehicles (EVs).

“The acceleration in EV adoption means that combustion vehicle sales peaked globally in 2017 and are now in permanent decline. By 2025 passenger ICE sales are 19% below their 2017 peak. Managing the decline while investing in the future is a major challenge for some legacy automakers.”1

But e-cars are still only 9% of sales and the e-car fleet is under 17 million worldwide, while the 2- and 3-wheelers are at 275 million, showing them at completely different scales on their illustrations.

This description of “2- and 3-wheelers” seemed odd. Surely if you are looking at the state of electric vehicles, e-bikes should be mentioned, not excluded as the note at the bottom of the EV fleet sizes suggests. In the U.S. alone, e-bike sales were up 240% last year with 790,000 imported, compared to 652,000 electric cars, including plug-in hybrids. In Europe, e-bikes are projected to outsell cars by the middle of this decade, whether gas or electric powered. Deloitte recently predictedthere could be 300 million e-bikes by 2023.

Photo by Gotrax on Unsplash

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The 15 Best Arguments for Bike Boosters: Part Three

From StreetsBlog.org

By Kiran Herbert and Martina Haggerty

People for Bikes recently developed a a 15-point fact sheet to help counteract misconceptions that often arise when advocating for change, as well as to promote strategies we know work. Here’s the third installment.

11. E-bike subsidies work

While the federal government currently offers a federal tax credit for electric cars of up to $7,500, nothing similar exists for people buying an electric bike. With a lack of federal initiative, more and more states, counties, and cities across the country are taking matters into their own hands, creating e-bike incentive programs that are as varied in substance as they are geographically. While many programs are relatively new, the data is compelling.

Launched in the spring of 2022, Denver’s incredibly popular e-bike incentive program has led to some notable results, including $1 million in cumulative annual savings for the city. Researchers also calculated that the program avoided considerable amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, with some 71 percent of survey respondents claiming to use their gas-powered vehicles less often (those surveyed rode their e-bikes an average of 26 miles per week, replacing 3.4 round trip vehicle trips). Importantly, 29 percent of Denver e-bike redeemers who completed the program survey indicated they were also new to riding.

12. Shared micromobility is a good investment for cities

Bike and scooter share, known collectively as shared micromobility, is a good investment for cities. When shared micromobility is done equitably, it can help alleviate transportation insecurity and lead to better public health, environmental, and economic outcomes. Unfortunately, not nearly enough municipalities treat shared micromobility as an integral part of their transit landscape or fund it accordingly. That’s a huge miss.

A 2021 study found that bike share systems are a boon for public health, saving the U.S. healthcare system more than $36 million a year on average. Another research paper from that same year looked at New York’s Citi Bike and found that the system — the largest in the U.S. — is a net win for the climate. In Britain, a more recent study found that if one-fifth of car trips were taken by shared electric bikes or scooters, the result would be a more than $1.2 billion boost to the economy.

Photo by Mark Stosberg on Unsplash

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Clean Air and Active Transportation Groups Seek $50M for CA E-Bike Program

Sacramento, CA – Today, a coalition of environmental, public health, and active transportation organizations have sent a letter to California state budget leadership requesting an additional $50M for the California Air Resources Board’s Electric Bicycle Incentive Project. The coalition argues this funding will “…help the state transition to clean transportation in order to meet its ambitious climate goals.”

The coalition submitting this request includes: Active San Gabriel Valley, California Bicycle Coalition, Coalition for Clean Air, Environment California, Safe Routes Partnership, and the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR).

E-Bikes: A Great Climate Investment for California

Callifornians are eager to begin replacing car trips with e-bike trips. The conversion of Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) from auto to active transportation can dramatically improve air quality for children and elderly in our polluted cities. It’s also a climate-transportation win-win.

“The Coalition for Clean Air is proud to be a part of a coalition advocating to increase funding for the Electric Bicycle Incentive Project. We believe this program will reduce greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions, lower VMT, promote equity, and improve quality of life for Californians if properly administered and funded,” said Sofia Rafikova, Policy Advocate at the Coalition for Clean Air.

Photo by Himiway Bikes on Unsplash

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