Ebike Programs

Benefits of Ebike Programs

E-bikes can be a game changer for helping people take more trips without their cars.

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Overcome many of the challenges people have with bicycles

E-bikes are great at climbing hills, beating headwinds, hauling kids & loads and tackling long commutes all with no sweat (unless you want it). Plus e-bike riders feel safer navigating traffic with the extra acceleration power.

 

Cheaper and faster to deploy

E-bikes cost about 10% as much as an electric car. With reduced capital costs we do not have to wait until an individual owner - or fleet operator - is ready to fully replace a gas powered vehicle to put an e-bike in service and start reducing gas powered trip miles.

 

No expensive charging infrastructure required.

E-bikes charge in 2-6 hours from a regular household outlet. No panel upgrades. No permitting.

 

Insignificant demand on the grid

E-bike chargers only pull 150-400 watts from a 120 volt circuit and provide 10-20 miles of range per hour of charging.[5] Getting this rate of recovery for charging an electric car requires a Level 2 charger pulling 3-6 kW from a 240 volt circuit.

 

High energy efficiency plus major climate & material savings

E-bikes get 1000 to 4000 MPGe and are 20 times more efficient than electric cars - meaning they can go twenty times farther than an electric car for the same charging electricity carbon emissions.[6] The manufacture of an e-bike takes at least an order of magnitude less embodied energy and carbon.[7] An e-bike will go at least 30 times farther than an electric car per pound of battery - stretching those limited lithium supplies farther.[8]

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Same benefits as regular bikes.

In addition to tailpipe emissions, cars car tires and brakes produce hazardous particulate emissions. E-bikes, like all bikes. produce virtually none of theses particulate emissions. Bikes & e-bikes reduce congestion and road damage. With much better driver sight lines than cars, a fraction of the mass and moving at speeds that rarely exceed 20MPH, bikes & e-bikes are far less likely to cause injury or death to pedestrians and other cyclists. Up to 10 bikes or 2-4 cargo bikes can park in the space taken by one car.

 

Expand the trips for which cycling is applicable

E-bikes provide a pathway to greater reductions in VMT (Vehicle Miles Traveled) by making it practical to cycle for longer trips, steeper hills, larger loads (including kids). hotter environments,  and more challenging traffic. An E-bike is not a replacement for safer bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure but can help us get VMT reductions while we are undertaking the longer project of adding bike lanes and other safety changes to our road infrastructure.  

 

Low cost carbon savings

Studies have shown that e-bike incentives are cost effective. E-bike users use their bikes for day to day commuting and errands, not just recreation. Subsidy dollars go farther. generating equal or higher carbon savings with incentive programs for e-bikes than for electric cars.[9]

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Increase equity and impact

The same dollars can get many more people on e-bikes than in electric vehicles and the relatively low cost of e-bikes opens up opportunities to take electric vehicle incentive programs that have mostly catered to wealthier people into low income communities.

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Good for elderly and handicapped people

Electric trikes are proving to be liberating to people who are getting less steady on their feet with age or who have lost use of a leg.

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Check out Studies of e-bikes to learn more about many of these benefits.

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