Are e-bikes the unsung secret to curbing climate change?

“The 360” shows you diverse perspectives on the day’s top stories and debates.

What’s happening

In the push to fight climate change, electric cars have become the centerpiece of plans to decarbonize American transportation. As much as that industry has boomed over the past several years, a less celebrated vehicle appears to be outpacing electric cars in sales.

Electric bikes have been around for decades, but they have exploded in popularity in recent years, thanks to advances in technology, increased concern about climate change, a spike in gas prices and the coronavirus pandemic — which made some modes of public transportation feel less safe for many commuters.

The term "e-bikes" describes any bicycle that includes an electric-powered motor that either aids riders in pedaling or doesn’t require them to pedal at all. Options on the market range from streamlined e-bikes that resemble a traditional bicycle to larger “cargo bikes” that can perform more like a Vespa scooter rather than a foot-powered bike. Prices can vary widely as well, with cheaper options costing less than $1,000, and high-end models running $5,000 or more.

For all of the enthusiasm for e-bikes, though, they have largely taken a back seat to electric cars in policy making. For example, President Biden’s signature climate legislation — the Inflation Reduction Act — included billions of dollars in tax incentives to encourage people to buy electric cars. But a provision that would have created similar rebates for e-bikes was cut from the final bill. Some state and local lawmakers have looked at making their own incentive programs. The most successful has been in Denver, where more than 5,000 residents have taken advantage of city-funded e-bike discounts since the program launched last year.

Why there’s debate

Many advocates argue that e-bikes, not electric cars, are the key to truly reducing the United States’ carbon footprint. While electric cars are greener than gas-powered vehicles, they are substantially more resource-intensive to produce and power. E-bikes are also much more affordable, costing a few thousand dollars at the high end, compared to the average electric car price of $65,000. Optimists say e-bikes can help cut car usage by a huge amount, since more than half of all daily trips made by Americans are less than 3 miles.

But skeptics say there are major hurdles that could prevent e-bikes from achieving their potential. The biggest drawback, many argue, is that most communities in the U.S. aren’t built to support a big influx in e-bike riders. The fastest e-bikes top out at 28 mph, far too slow to share the road with cars but fast enough to create a hazard in bike lanes filled with traditional bike riders. This conflict, along with the troubling trend of fires caused by cheap e-bike batteries, has raised serious safety concerns that could prevent a lot of people from switching to e-bikes.

Others argue that American society is simply too car-centric for any alternative to ever fully catch on. Part of that is the lack of dedicated bike infrastructure in most U.S. cities, which makes biking less desirable for riders and more intrusive to everyone else. But the issue also may be cultural, many argue. Americans are so accustomed to viewing cars as the only viable way of getting around that any other options — whether e-bikes or public transportation — will always face skepticism from a huge proportion of the population.

What’s next

Supporters of a federal e-bike tax credit say they’ll continue to promote the proposal, either as a stand-alone bill or part of a larger budget plan. The prospects of that becoming a reality are probably much slimmer today than they were last year, however, now that Republicans control the House of Representatives.

Perspectives

OPTIMISTS

E-bikes solve the biggest problems facing electric vehicles

“The transition to electric cars and trucks will help lower emissions, but those vehicles are still relatively expensive and come with significant consumer reservations about where and how to charge.” — Kyle Bagenstose, USA Today

E-bikes open up clean travel to people who can’t use a traditional bike

“It’s a difference maker for accessibility, unlocking clean and efficient micromobility for those who can’t power the full distance. That means a daunting bike commute can suddenly become a breeze, or a car trip to the grocery store can become a quick bike ride.” — Julie Tighe, City Limits

The more people see the benefits of e-bikes, the more accepted they’ll become

“Perhaps the main thing missing from widespread e-bike adoption, however, is the thing that is potentially easiest to remedy — cultural acceptance of e-bikes by two groups that have long disdained them: cyclists and motorists. … With progress made on the technological and legislative problems that were holding back e-bikes, the biggest barrier now seems to be the outdated attitude that sees bikes only as a recreational athletic opportunity rather than a practical transportation option.” — Tom Babin, Los Angeles Times

E-bikes are ideal for replacing a huge share of car trips most people make

“E-bikes are especially well-suited for replacing car trips because they allow you to travel farther with much less effort than on a conventional bike, making long distances or hilly terrain less daunting. E-bikes can be pricey. … But even on the high end, they’re much less costly than a car.” — Angie Schmitt, Vox

The hard work of making cities more bike-friendly has already been done

“Fortunately, thanks to decades of spending on road and highway building, the infrastructure needed to create [bike] networks already exists. Cities don’t need to pour asphalt; they just need to commandeer some of the surplus of streets from cars. … All it takes is concrete barriers, hefty planters, metal bollards, rows of parked cars or some other sturdy boundary between bikes and cars.” — Ira Boudway, Bloomberg

E-bikes can help end America’s car obsession

“Riding instead of driving actively makes your city a more pleasant place to live, for everyone. That’s because electric vehicles sidestep only one small part of what makes personal car ownership such a stubborn problem for cities. They may run on electricity, but they’re still cars, and you don’t fix car problems with a different kind of car.” — Joe Lindsey, Outside

SKEPTICS

Many Americans can’t imagine a world where they don’t drive a car

“When it comes to electric, cars are what both producers and consumers are thinking about the most — and there’s a reason for that: As a culture, we’re car obsessed.” — Tony Ho Tran, Daily Beast

E-bikes are too powerful to safely share the road with traditional bicycles

“The whole point of e-bikes is the effortless speed, so it is natural to get impatient when temporarily relegated to the speed of a regular bike. In effect, there are two different traffic flows occurring within the same lane, an obvious recipe for conflict. People who design roads for cars figured this out a long time ago and put in passing lanes and multi-lane highways to eliminate that conflict. But bike infrastructure typically has nothing like this.” — Aaron Gordon, Vice

An e-bike is a strange, hybrid machine that has no natural place

“Strapping a motor to a bike turns out to alter more than just speed and exertion. It produces a chameleon that takes on, under various conditions, both the best and worst features of a variety of transportation technologies. The result is less an evolution of a two-wheeled machine than a pastiche of the many things such a device represents. It’s a monster made from bicycles and motorbikes.” — Ian Bogost, The Atlantic

People won’t use e-bikes if they don’t feel safe riding on the streets

“I want to live in a city where riding my bicycle to school and work is an option. I want to live in a city where I can let my children ride their bikes to a friend’s house or to the library or park. I do not live in that city yet. … E-bike rebates are not going to create that city.” — Megan Schrader, Denver Post

The powers that be don’t appreciate the potential of e-bikes

“By the look of things, many American environmental [organizations] and congressional Democrats still do not understand that e-bikes offer a realistic alternative to driving. … Those who appreciate the transformative power of e-bikes must recruit more allies, both on the Hill and among prominent interest groups that have Democrats’ ear.” — David Zipper, Slate

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Photo illustration: Jack Forbes/Yahoo News; photos: Getty Images