To E-Bike or Not to E-Bike

An e-bike used by a business to haul sandwiches in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo: Ben Cooper via Flickr)

You're
seeing electric-powered bicycles more and more on the streets of New
York these days, so far mostly ridden by restaurant deliverymen. But
are they just early adopters of what will become a more widespread
trend?

Today on the Streetsblog Network, Commute by Bike
has a post asking just that question. Big caveat up front: It's written
by a woman who owns a shop that sells electric-assist kits for bikes in
Carrboro, North Carolina.

That said, it raises some good
points about how electric bikes could be a part of the future of
transportation, especially for people with children and other cargo to
transport, or for longer commutes. The author says she was inspired to
start her business by her own experience:

You
see, I had three small people under the age of five to take care of,
and not only did they need to be transported, but I needed to have the
energy to deal with them. After a lengthy internet search, a cargo bike
was selected to transport them. But I didn’t live super close to town,
and there were some big hills in the way. I didn’t think I could do it.
I could barely pedal the bike up the first hill out of the
driveway.This is where the electric assist kit transformed this into a
realistic solution.

With my kit, I can pedal the bike
even with three kids or a week’s worth of groceries, over 12 miles of
hilly terrain. I can do it every day and it doesn’t take forever or
leave me sweaty and exhausted. It’s become a realistic and competitive
alternative to the car. And in fact, it’s become the preferred option
most of the time as everyone enjoys riding the bike more than riding
the car, especially Mom!

Setting up this bike
actually was a life-changing experience for me, so I started a bike
shop to help other people realize their own dreams of using their car
less and their bikes more. Electric assist has been a big part of
this.We help a lot of people like myself who want to electrify cargo
bikes.

But we also help a lot of commuters with distances
of over three miles to go. Some people are even riding 20 miles each
way, and the electric assist just makes this commute much faster and
more do- able. Instead of bike commuting one day a week, they’re doing
it three or five days. We’ve also helped people with disabilities,
people who are out of shape, and people who just want to have more fun
riding their bikes. It’s been a pleasure watching all of these people
dust off bikes and leave their cars in the garage. In my book, anything
that enables people to do that is worth doing.

Probably
there are purists who don't like e-bikes precisely because they allow
people "who are out of shape" to ride (heck, we all know there are
folks who apparently look down on gears). That's not my concern
at all. I do, however, worry about electric assist bikes in urban
settings -- that they can be too fast to mix well with regular bikes in
heavily trafficked bike lanes. I've already seen some scary situations
caused by e-bikes, and I'm sure I'll see more as they proliferate.

(On a side note, the International Cycling Union is looking into what is known as "motorized doping" in pro bike racing -- the possible use of hidden batteries to increase a rider's speed. Hat tip to @spokesnyt for that link.)

What's your e-bike opinion? Let us know in the comments.

There's
also a semantic bike controversy is brewing on the network today: Is
the term "cyclist" one that people who ride bikes should embrace, or
reject as marginalizing? Is calling people who ride bikes "people who
ride bikes" going to make those people more acceptable to the
mainstream?

A post on Seattle's Publicola kicked it off. Bicycling Toronto is in the anti "cyclist" camp, saying, "The last thing Toronto needs is more cyclists." But Biking in LA
takes the other side, writing, "You're a cyclist. Get over it.… No one
benefits from getting caught up in a question of semantics."

Of
course, this all leads us to the question: Is a person who rides an
electrically assisted bike a person who rides a bike? From behind a
windshield, at least, we're betting the answer is yes.