Yes!!!!! I use my pedal assist e-bike to commute to the school where I teach (5 miles each way) most days and it's cheaper, cleaner, and often FASTER than taking a car. It's also fun and ensures that I'm outside every day. I've biked in rain and even light snow. As long as you have the correct gear, it's fine. My husband and I even sold one of our cars and have managed a one car life in the suburbs with two kids for over a year thanks to our e-bikes. I have almost 6500 miles on my e-bike and that's all errands and commuting around.
I'm 73. I've been using an e-bike for 4 years now. At first, it scared me a little (cars passing me). But soon I grew very comfortable with it. Now I adore it. Every possible car task that I can use the bike for instead, or my legs, I do. That's pretty much every day, winter, spring, summer, or fall. I don't use the e-bike for pleasure, but using it for tasks IS immensely pleasurable. And I come away from every trip amazed at the quality of my little e-machine, it's brilliant design. It cost me $999 and it's one of the very best things I've ever purchased. I used it today to get a bunch of library books and buy groceries for my household, and loved every minute.
We rode to our river for a free swim in one of the pools off the main current, and then to a good coffee shop for iced expresso, then back home. Exercise, refreshment and cold water, hot sun made our day. E bikes are wonderful....and up here in oil soaked Alberta Canada, still quite alone on the road.
But yes...we do have our fossils, soon for the bone yard, griping about how bikes interfere with traffic!!!
Ingamarie, I am here in Alberta too. Glad to hear you're using the ebike! Which part of Alberta are you in? I'm in the NW, and ebikes here are still slow to catch on, except for getting around when camping at the lake.
We're in Calgary......and both e-bikes and EV's have been slow to catch on......but that seems to be changing fast. If the orange moron continues his war on Iran, we expect EV's to multiply.
Albertans have more money than sense in general.......and if it saves them money, they pretty soon see the light.
So true ❤️ unfortunately so many in our province think they will die in the dark, cold and penniless, if we don't put more money into oil production and pipelines. Quite the legacy to leave future generations; a black mark on history.
Capitalism always tends toward monopoly.....and in oil soaked Alberta, Tar is our monopoly player. Albertans are now more at risk of dying in overheated apartments and homes dependant on air conditioning......for short term survival from heat domes.
Urban neolibs too self centred to understand what heat domes do to crops...animals....and the living ecosphere's we actually all depend on....keep doubling down on pipelines to nowhere for their future advantage.
There's more things than darkness and cold coming for us I'm afraid....but reductive thinking, two ideas only, one of them wrong, keeps us technically blind to the complexities of the planet....and the precariousness of our stay here.
Ingamarie and Fran - wow! Nice to meet people who live where I once lived. I live in Knoxville Tennessee now, but I grew up from 0 to 18 in Calgary (my US citizen father was an oil man and his company transferred him to Calgary just before I was born). I still have Alberta friends from long ago, and many of them are worried that the rest of Canada will rob them of all the province's oil money. They seem to want to leave Canada and join the US. "Don't do it!" I want to scream. The US is a mess at this point. I wish Tennessee could leave the US and join Canada. Not that most Tennesseans would ever agree to that.
Great to meet you Tim! Yes, unfortunately greed created from oil money has clouded common sense for many people here in Alberta. Instead of looking to China and Europe for alternate innovation and fossil fuel alternatives, so many continue to push for oil expansion. I am hopeful though, that with the massive catastrophes here in Alberta with devastating forest fires, tornadoes and flooding that has occurred here repeatedly in the past 20 years, the next generation will put politicians in power who care more about the planet than about padding their pockets.
I added a battery and an electric motor to my hybrid bike 11 years ago. I have been one of a few e-bike riders in our town until about two years ago. Now there are many more. I worry about safety if the younger riders since they tend to be reckless.
My town and county jointly and finally took several months to widen a two-lane but high-speed road that moves from the residential area where I live to a commercial area with grocery stores, doctor's offices, etc. Now there's a protected bike lane and way to cross the creek without having some jackwagon in an oversize pickup hip-check you and your bike over the rail and into the creek. I can't afford an EV or hybrid, but now half my errands can be done via bicycle.
I got a little smug about it, though. My new physical therapy referral (shoulder) is less than a mile from the house, which was one of the reasons I picked them. (They did a good job rehabbing a relative after surgery.) So I rode over there thinking about all the pollution I wasn't generating, then couldn't find a bike rack. Had to lock my old man "comfort" bike to a signpost. I asked reception where's the bike rack. "I don't know, sir. Most of our clients aren't in a medical condition to ride a bike here." Okay, lady. Point taken.
What about a used EV? The batteries have been pretty durable. Test the range before you buy. My first EV was 4 years old and about half new price. A BMW I3 with extended range.
Lots of good news here Bill......especially excited by how much E-bikes are cutting into oil and gas usage. My partner and I have electric bikes and use them almost as much as our EV in summer......thanks for included the stupidity of Doug Ford in your litany of right wing fossils who seem to think the ICE car needs their protection...most of North America is far behind what you describe happening in Europe and China....but change is happening, on many fronts.......and much faster than most realize.
Keep sending us the good news. We live in Alberta, so are often in much need of it.
It's no contest, you win, hands down. What's more, a portion of the deniers came to Alberta from your great state.......following the devil's excrement wherever it might lead them.
They still think more pipelines to our oceans is a winning ticket.....optimistic Trump's war against Iran will jump start our bitumen production to the end of time.
For a century, oil has been a winning ticket. Just lately, demand has declined. They are unfamiliar with the idea that it COULD decline. My job is to say it is declining over and over again until it sinks in. Economic realities help. Exxon expected barrel price to go sky high. It has not. Several media including Yahoo said "lots of people are getting along with out oil". Oil price is too low for new tar sands investment. If it drops another $20 existing tar sands will go broke.
While everything you say is true.........the Iran/America/Israeli war isn't over yet....and I'm afraid that Trump is too short term clever, and too long term dumb to understand that continuing the cheating on agreements to keep the straits closed is at some point going to cause global depressions....
At that point, he likely hopes oil prices spike and his investments pay off. I'm starting to think that what we are experiencing now is the true level of danger posed by having a world leader do what he does to stimulate the stock market.
That invisible hand, remember??? Maybe its always only been invisible to people not trained to think, of shallow thinkers in power. And of course, as long as the bombs keep falling, fossil fueled emissions keep rising......
So we are still in a very hard to call race against extinctions......including our own.
Either way the price of oil goes, oil demand is eroding. With the Hormuz conflict, supply and price are difficult to predict. The conflict jiggled things loose. Electric cars and trucks are three or four times more efficient than internal combustion vehicles. Transportation is the big part of modern society that is the least electrified. Cars and trucks are half of oil demand. The oil industry is in decline.
Even if we wish we could run things, decisions are made by the 8 billion people. Most countries have climate plans they are implementing.
What we can do is follow our moral compass. We can continue to add climate protection to our shared moral consensus. Morality is an ancient tool to protect the Beloved Community.
Sure hope you're right. But there's a lot of old fossils with too much money and not enough education in your imploding republic......and watching and fighting against the genocide in Gaza for nearly 4 years now..........I'm still learning how invested western Capitalism is in War, Collatoral damage and genocide.
I never imagined private citizens would be facing up to 14 years in jail for standing with Palestine Action in the UK.........or that citizens could be shot down with impunity by a masked gestapo if their skin or immigration cards are the wrong colour.
But all that is happening.......while good people still opine that Iran is evil.
So I'm a bit overwhelmed by the stupidity just now. And the meanness of heart.
Okay this is a subject I'm passionate about. Bikes are amazing!! As much as I appreciate the highlighting of bikes and E-bikes as a part of the future of transportation, I want to also emphasize that people on E-bikes without proper knowledge or instruction on how to ride a bike courteously can cause a lot of frustration and physical harm to pedestrians, other cyclists, etc. This was mentioned in the article when referencing restricting ebike topspeeds, possibilities of licenses being required for things that are basically emotos, etc.
My husband is a veteran of the bike store, a long-time bike mechanic, and now manages a very well known secondhand bike and repair shop in a large cycling city in the Pacific northwest... I hear day in and day out about accidents caused by E-bikes and E-scooters. Folks have to have serious work done on their bikes after an accident or even go to the hospital with injuries on a regular basis. As a responsible cyclist and pedestrian who pays close attention to those around me, I can say that sometimes it's terrifying to ride on bike/walking paths without even mentioning the cars on the road.
Additionally, many e-bike companies and bicycle companies in general create bikes with bespoke, company-specific parts that are expensive, difficult, and frustrating to repair or replace. It's not very sustainable. There is little standardization in the bike world - it's not like cars. That is unlikely to change as bike manufacturers continue to "improve" their perfectly good models with more features that are really only necessary for the most intense of riders, not somebody going for a sunday bike ride or short commute to work and makes it more complicated than the layman might believe, who goes online excited to order their first e-bike, put it together themselves at home, ride it around without getting safety checks done, there is just so much that could go wrong and again, we see it every week at the bike shop.. The batteries that power e-bikes are unsafe to leave charging unattended (a real danger of catching fire means that my husband's workplace will not accept e-bikes for repair with their batteries attached, the owner must instead take it with them. Bike shops have literally burned to the ground due to these batteries). An uneducated public simply doesn't know these things - and how could they? In the US, most people simply do not take bikes seriously as a form of transportation. It's wonderful if that is changing, as it's important that people do take bikes seriously even though they are SO fun!
Overall, I'm in an unusual position where I'm probably over thinking this, but I hope that someone will find the contributions and specialized knowledge to be of use. And I'm really grateful to Bill McKibben for talking about BIKES! It truly doesn't get talked about enough.
I'm a bit surprised to hear e-bike batteries give so much trouble. I bought my partner an e-bike for his birthday in 2018 and he was gone so often for this or that, that I got one for myself in 2019......luckily, just before covid hit.
We biked all over our city and found the relative isolation more restful than irritating......we discovered so much about our area that we wouldn't have experienced without the e-bikes...
I rather wonder about the quality of e-bikes in your area.
When we hit the road with our EV, we discovered that charge stations manned from the states were often down and no one knew why...........Flo stations made in Canada never failed us.
I suspect that sometimes cheap isn't so cheap........and a free market not so free. Because our experience with battery operated bikes and cars has been wonderful..........and maintenance free.........for over the six plus years we've had them.
I appreciate your response! It's not so much an issue of E-bikes in my area as an issue of E-bikes that people order online. You can get high-quality bikes here or anywhere. and it's not by any means a certainty that the batteries would have an issue as it is a risk one takes on. I also live in a high population city with a LOT of cyclists so the trails are crowded as heck. Definitely not the norm towns or cities, but a reality in bigger cities that needs to be planned for if cycling is really gaining the popularity I hope it is!
In our city, it is against the law to ride e-bikes that have batteries that run the bike when you aren't peddling. I think those can be dangerous....our bikes are peddle assist so you're always getting a degree of exercise......but as we're in our late 70's and live on a hill over looking the river....we'd not be able to get back home without that battery assist! And even with it at maximum, its a lung work out for both of us.
Well I hope it was clear in my words that I believe e-bikes are a wonderful and important development for practicality joy and accessibility of bikes! Important to bring up criticisms of a developing technology despite being for it. I'm glad your city has laws in place restricting the types of ebikes being ridden but that is not the case everywhere!
I know. Canada, for all its tarsands denialism, is more willing to be regulated than some parts of our world........and good regulation is essential for the health and safety of us all.
One more thought - Brakes on ebikes are SO important! This is a lesson that keeps getting learned over and over, and deaths of adults and children have been caused by ebikes with brakes not powerful enough to stop in emergencies with the weight and speed the bikes are capable of. The famous RAD bikes are infamous for this issue. There ARE great and safe ebikes out there just please do your research before buying one!
I am 88 and newly riding an e-trike. I would never ride it in a street bike lane. Way too dangerous. I have ridden my bike on sidewalks all my life and I intend to continue, no matter what the law says. I am super courteous to other users of the sidewalk but I am not going to risk my life next to speeding cars.
Here in Texas, I can see the fragility of the fossil fuel industry. Today the Associate Press said oil demand is dropping. Fewer people are buying oil. https://archive.is/AEriW
Yes! Please see my post above regarding the end of the ICE industry. Once all ICE manufacturing is over, it's over forever and for everybody. Gasoline and diesel account for over 70% of all oil used. We can literally end all of that by killing the ICE industry. We do that by making it a shameful act to buy a new gas car.
Yes, but much less than that is enough to get things moving along. A steady decline in oil demand of 1% or 3% per year will work wonders. Just passing peak demand means the industries go from growth and opportunity to decline and risk. Let the declines simmer for a year.
Now that Delhi has got it that bad air is killing its people and that electrifying transport will help, the other Indian mega-cities will follow. Bangladesh has followed already.
It's easier to sell evs to people who can't afford gas than to your California people with wallets fat with cash. What's holding the low income countries back from electrifying transport is lack of financing. Africans can get an old ICE car imported from Europe for maybe $3000. To acquire an EV requires financing and, in Africa, that's more difficult to come by than in the USA.
Appreciate the commentary. However, for bikes or e-bikes you do not address the weather: especially rain. Presumably on rainy days people go to buses or something else? Rain is a big issue in New Zealand
Rain pants, rain jacket, baseball cap under your helmet, rain guards over your shoes, waterproof commuter bag. All set! If it's really raining cats and dogs, I'll catch a ride w/a neighbor/work colleague.
I thought your Ezra Klein conversation was so interesting, and this piece is excellent — clearly you’ve done a huge amount of research and thinking on how we can travel more lightly. Your framing of e‑bikes as genuinely transformative is so compelling; in fact - it’s pushed me from “periodically browsing” to actively searching for an e‑bike. Thank you for informing people like me.
I bought my first e-bike almost 20 years ago when the batteries were lead acid, then gave it up. I bought another 9 years ago (lithium ion) and presently close in on 24,000 miles. I commuted on the e-bike until I retired and now ride to do errands and for fun. They are fun. You see and hear a lot more. Birds, flowers, the kinks in a squirrels tail, deer hiding in the woods, wild turkeys calling each other, little kestrels on fence posts, and more. Cars, even electric, separate you from life. Bikes put you closer, a let you stop to help a turtle cross the road. Who wants to kill a turtle, or even a snake? One thing you missed is the vast difference in the embodied energy between a bike and a car. My bike weighs 62 pounds. My Bolt weighs 3,600 pounds, 58 times as much, and it is a smaller EV. You can build at least 50 e-bikes with the materials and energy that goes into a single car. DEI? Yes, and let's have a lot more of it, starting with bicycle buses to school in towns and cities everywhere!
I appreciate the shout out for ebikes. I've owned several for over a decade, and they're my primary commuting vehicles year-round, from -40° to +40°C.
I would note that being concerned about throttles is a red herring. We don't want to start peeling off ebikers who happen to have a throttle that is handy for getting through a snowbank or up a steep hill when walking it. Licenses not being required is part of why they're chosen over motorcycles. They simply have to be limited to 32km/h no matter their propulsion method.
I have a different solution to this critical problem of US transportation, fossil fuel usage.
Make stringent, enforced improvements to nationwide EPA standards for the following vehicles :
Public metro buses … 3 MPG to 20 MPG
Heavy construction trucks … 5 MPG to 20
Tractor trailer trucks … 7 MPG to 25
Passenger cars … 28 MPG to
60.
Pick up truck … 21 MPG to 50
Delivery trucks … 8 MPG to 25
Rideshare vehicles … 32 MPG to 60 motorcycles … 50 MPG to 80
E Bikes … 1000 MPG to 1000 MPG
Gas guzzling inefficient vehicles not meeting Federal EPA standards are taxed on a graduated scale. Tax funds are thereafter applied to Clean Air Programs in the most polluted cities and towns in the US.
This puts the burden on the car manufacturers, designers, engineers, and transportation strategists that we have in this country to build a smarter, cleaner and efficient transportation system.
It puts big oil on notice that a catastrophe is in the making, and they can play a critical role in making sure that it doesn’t happen.
Yes!!!!! I use my pedal assist e-bike to commute to the school where I teach (5 miles each way) most days and it's cheaper, cleaner, and often FASTER than taking a car. It's also fun and ensures that I'm outside every day. I've biked in rain and even light snow. As long as you have the correct gear, it's fine. My husband and I even sold one of our cars and have managed a one car life in the suburbs with two kids for over a year thanks to our e-bikes. I have almost 6500 miles on my e-bike and that's all errands and commuting around.
Cool that you sold a car. Down to one now. Bravo.
I'm 73. I've been using an e-bike for 4 years now. At first, it scared me a little (cars passing me). But soon I grew very comfortable with it. Now I adore it. Every possible car task that I can use the bike for instead, or my legs, I do. That's pretty much every day, winter, spring, summer, or fall. I don't use the e-bike for pleasure, but using it for tasks IS immensely pleasurable. And I come away from every trip amazed at the quality of my little e-machine, it's brilliant design. It cost me $999 and it's one of the very best things I've ever purchased. I used it today to get a bunch of library books and buy groceries for my household, and loved every minute.
We rode to our river for a free swim in one of the pools off the main current, and then to a good coffee shop for iced expresso, then back home. Exercise, refreshment and cold water, hot sun made our day. E bikes are wonderful....and up here in oil soaked Alberta Canada, still quite alone on the road.
But yes...we do have our fossils, soon for the bone yard, griping about how bikes interfere with traffic!!!
Ingamarie, I am here in Alberta too. Glad to hear you're using the ebike! Which part of Alberta are you in? I'm in the NW, and ebikes here are still slow to catch on, except for getting around when camping at the lake.
We're in Calgary......and both e-bikes and EV's have been slow to catch on......but that seems to be changing fast. If the orange moron continues his war on Iran, we expect EV's to multiply.
Albertans have more money than sense in general.......and if it saves them money, they pretty soon see the light.
So true ❤️ unfortunately so many in our province think they will die in the dark, cold and penniless, if we don't put more money into oil production and pipelines. Quite the legacy to leave future generations; a black mark on history.
Yes, I was raised to fear poverty and to dismiss the poor as "lazy". A few weeks ago, Bill's topic was sufficiency is necessary for sustainability.
Capitalism always tends toward monopoly.....and in oil soaked Alberta, Tar is our monopoly player. Albertans are now more at risk of dying in overheated apartments and homes dependant on air conditioning......for short term survival from heat domes.
Urban neolibs too self centred to understand what heat domes do to crops...animals....and the living ecosphere's we actually all depend on....keep doubling down on pipelines to nowhere for their future advantage.
There's more things than darkness and cold coming for us I'm afraid....but reductive thinking, two ideas only, one of them wrong, keeps us technically blind to the complexities of the planet....and the precariousness of our stay here.
Ingamarie and Fran - wow! Nice to meet people who live where I once lived. I live in Knoxville Tennessee now, but I grew up from 0 to 18 in Calgary (my US citizen father was an oil man and his company transferred him to Calgary just before I was born). I still have Alberta friends from long ago, and many of them are worried that the rest of Canada will rob them of all the province's oil money. They seem to want to leave Canada and join the US. "Don't do it!" I want to scream. The US is a mess at this point. I wish Tennessee could leave the US and join Canada. Not that most Tennesseans would ever agree to that.
Great to meet you Tim! Yes, unfortunately greed created from oil money has clouded common sense for many people here in Alberta. Instead of looking to China and Europe for alternate innovation and fossil fuel alternatives, so many continue to push for oil expansion. I am hopeful though, that with the massive catastrophes here in Alberta with devastating forest fires, tornadoes and flooding that has occurred here repeatedly in the past 20 years, the next generation will put politicians in power who care more about the planet than about padding their pockets.
I added a battery and an electric motor to my hybrid bike 11 years ago. I have been one of a few e-bike riders in our town until about two years ago. Now there are many more. I worry about safety if the younger riders since they tend to be reckless.
The Houston bike club gave classes in safety.
E-bikes, e-rickshaws, e-scooters.
In India, electric rickshaws are 70% of sales. Delhi will ban sales of fossil fuel rickshaws next year and fossil two wheelers in 2028.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/indias-unstoppable-electric-tuktuk-revolution/
https://healthpolicy-watch.news/can-delhis-2-5-billion-shift-to-electric-and-low-emission-vehicles-transform-indias-capital-to-a-pollution-free-city/
My town and county jointly and finally took several months to widen a two-lane but high-speed road that moves from the residential area where I live to a commercial area with grocery stores, doctor's offices, etc. Now there's a protected bike lane and way to cross the creek without having some jackwagon in an oversize pickup hip-check you and your bike over the rail and into the creek. I can't afford an EV or hybrid, but now half my errands can be done via bicycle.
I got a little smug about it, though. My new physical therapy referral (shoulder) is less than a mile from the house, which was one of the reasons I picked them. (They did a good job rehabbing a relative after surgery.) So I rode over there thinking about all the pollution I wasn't generating, then couldn't find a bike rack. Had to lock my old man "comfort" bike to a signpost. I asked reception where's the bike rack. "I don't know, sir. Most of our clients aren't in a medical condition to ride a bike here." Okay, lady. Point taken.
Good for you - maybe your query will inspire them to add a rack? At least the therapists could use it?
What about a used EV? The batteries have been pretty durable. Test the range before you buy. My first EV was 4 years old and about half new price. A BMW I3 with extended range.
Lots of good news here Bill......especially excited by how much E-bikes are cutting into oil and gas usage. My partner and I have electric bikes and use them almost as much as our EV in summer......thanks for included the stupidity of Doug Ford in your litany of right wing fossils who seem to think the ICE car needs their protection...most of North America is far behind what you describe happening in Europe and China....but change is happening, on many fronts.......and much faster than most realize.
Keep sending us the good news. We live in Alberta, so are often in much need of it.
I'll betcha Houston has more deniers than Alberta. Our metro region has as many people as your province. What do you want to bet?
It's no contest, you win, hands down. What's more, a portion of the deniers came to Alberta from your great state.......following the devil's excrement wherever it might lead them.
They still think more pipelines to our oceans is a winning ticket.....optimistic Trump's war against Iran will jump start our bitumen production to the end of time.
Literally.
For a century, oil has been a winning ticket. Just lately, demand has declined. They are unfamiliar with the idea that it COULD decline. My job is to say it is declining over and over again until it sinks in. Economic realities help. Exxon expected barrel price to go sky high. It has not. Several media including Yahoo said "lots of people are getting along with out oil". Oil price is too low for new tar sands investment. If it drops another $20 existing tar sands will go broke.
While everything you say is true.........the Iran/America/Israeli war isn't over yet....and I'm afraid that Trump is too short term clever, and too long term dumb to understand that continuing the cheating on agreements to keep the straits closed is at some point going to cause global depressions....
At that point, he likely hopes oil prices spike and his investments pay off. I'm starting to think that what we are experiencing now is the true level of danger posed by having a world leader do what he does to stimulate the stock market.
That invisible hand, remember??? Maybe its always only been invisible to people not trained to think, of shallow thinkers in power. And of course, as long as the bombs keep falling, fossil fueled emissions keep rising......
So we are still in a very hard to call race against extinctions......including our own.
Either way the price of oil goes, oil demand is eroding. With the Hormuz conflict, supply and price are difficult to predict. The conflict jiggled things loose. Electric cars and trucks are three or four times more efficient than internal combustion vehicles. Transportation is the big part of modern society that is the least electrified. Cars and trucks are half of oil demand. The oil industry is in decline.
Even if we wish we could run things, decisions are made by the 8 billion people. Most countries have climate plans they are implementing.
What we can do is follow our moral compass. We can continue to add climate protection to our shared moral consensus. Morality is an ancient tool to protect the Beloved Community.
Yes, we are in a race against extinctions. Yes, emissions are still rising, but I expect them to peak any year now. Now that China, the world's largest emitter has peaked, the world will peak. https://www.science.org/content/article/global-carbon-emissions-will-soon-flatten-or-decline
Sure hope you're right. But there's a lot of old fossils with too much money and not enough education in your imploding republic......and watching and fighting against the genocide in Gaza for nearly 4 years now..........I'm still learning how invested western Capitalism is in War, Collatoral damage and genocide.
I never imagined private citizens would be facing up to 14 years in jail for standing with Palestine Action in the UK.........or that citizens could be shot down with impunity by a masked gestapo if their skin or immigration cards are the wrong colour.
But all that is happening.......while good people still opine that Iran is evil.
So I'm a bit overwhelmed by the stupidity just now. And the meanness of heart.
Okay this is a subject I'm passionate about. Bikes are amazing!! As much as I appreciate the highlighting of bikes and E-bikes as a part of the future of transportation, I want to also emphasize that people on E-bikes without proper knowledge or instruction on how to ride a bike courteously can cause a lot of frustration and physical harm to pedestrians, other cyclists, etc. This was mentioned in the article when referencing restricting ebike topspeeds, possibilities of licenses being required for things that are basically emotos, etc.
My husband is a veteran of the bike store, a long-time bike mechanic, and now manages a very well known secondhand bike and repair shop in a large cycling city in the Pacific northwest... I hear day in and day out about accidents caused by E-bikes and E-scooters. Folks have to have serious work done on their bikes after an accident or even go to the hospital with injuries on a regular basis. As a responsible cyclist and pedestrian who pays close attention to those around me, I can say that sometimes it's terrifying to ride on bike/walking paths without even mentioning the cars on the road.
Additionally, many e-bike companies and bicycle companies in general create bikes with bespoke, company-specific parts that are expensive, difficult, and frustrating to repair or replace. It's not very sustainable. There is little standardization in the bike world - it's not like cars. That is unlikely to change as bike manufacturers continue to "improve" their perfectly good models with more features that are really only necessary for the most intense of riders, not somebody going for a sunday bike ride or short commute to work and makes it more complicated than the layman might believe, who goes online excited to order their first e-bike, put it together themselves at home, ride it around without getting safety checks done, there is just so much that could go wrong and again, we see it every week at the bike shop.. The batteries that power e-bikes are unsafe to leave charging unattended (a real danger of catching fire means that my husband's workplace will not accept e-bikes for repair with their batteries attached, the owner must instead take it with them. Bike shops have literally burned to the ground due to these batteries). An uneducated public simply doesn't know these things - and how could they? In the US, most people simply do not take bikes seriously as a form of transportation. It's wonderful if that is changing, as it's important that people do take bikes seriously even though they are SO fun!
Overall, I'm in an unusual position where I'm probably over thinking this, but I hope that someone will find the contributions and specialized knowledge to be of use. And I'm really grateful to Bill McKibben for talking about BIKES! It truly doesn't get talked about enough.
I'm a bit surprised to hear e-bike batteries give so much trouble. I bought my partner an e-bike for his birthday in 2018 and he was gone so often for this or that, that I got one for myself in 2019......luckily, just before covid hit.
We biked all over our city and found the relative isolation more restful than irritating......we discovered so much about our area that we wouldn't have experienced without the e-bikes...
I rather wonder about the quality of e-bikes in your area.
When we hit the road with our EV, we discovered that charge stations manned from the states were often down and no one knew why...........Flo stations made in Canada never failed us.
I suspect that sometimes cheap isn't so cheap........and a free market not so free. Because our experience with battery operated bikes and cars has been wonderful..........and maintenance free.........for over the six plus years we've had them.
I appreciate your response! It's not so much an issue of E-bikes in my area as an issue of E-bikes that people order online. You can get high-quality bikes here or anywhere. and it's not by any means a certainty that the batteries would have an issue as it is a risk one takes on. I also live in a high population city with a LOT of cyclists so the trails are crowded as heck. Definitely not the norm towns or cities, but a reality in bigger cities that needs to be planned for if cycling is really gaining the popularity I hope it is!
In our city, it is against the law to ride e-bikes that have batteries that run the bike when you aren't peddling. I think those can be dangerous....our bikes are peddle assist so you're always getting a degree of exercise......but as we're in our late 70's and live on a hill over looking the river....we'd not be able to get back home without that battery assist! And even with it at maximum, its a lung work out for both of us.
Well I hope it was clear in my words that I believe e-bikes are a wonderful and important development for practicality joy and accessibility of bikes! Important to bring up criticisms of a developing technology despite being for it. I'm glad your city has laws in place restricting the types of ebikes being ridden but that is not the case everywhere!
I know. Canada, for all its tarsands denialism, is more willing to be regulated than some parts of our world........and good regulation is essential for the health and safety of us all.
One more thought - Brakes on ebikes are SO important! This is a lesson that keeps getting learned over and over, and deaths of adults and children have been caused by ebikes with brakes not powerful enough to stop in emergencies with the weight and speed the bikes are capable of. The famous RAD bikes are infamous for this issue. There ARE great and safe ebikes out there just please do your research before buying one!
How about running a long extension cord out to the garden and charging the battery there, where a fire would not be catastrophic?
Freddy Mercury and Queen 👑‼️ :: " I love ❤️😘 to ride my bicycle 🚳🚳"... ✌️🤠
Bike infrastructure is the biggest limiting factor where I live. If more cities follow Beijing's roadmap, your prediction might turn out to be right.
I am 88 and newly riding an e-trike. I would never ride it in a street bike lane. Way too dangerous. I have ridden my bike on sidewalks all my life and I intend to continue, no matter what the law says. I am super courteous to other users of the sidewalk but I am not going to risk my life next to speeding cars.
One of man’s greatest inventions.
Here in Texas, I can see the fragility of the fossil fuel industry. Today the Associate Press said oil demand is dropping. Fewer people are buying oil. https://archive.is/AEriW
This peak marks the shift from growth and opportunity to decline and risk. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2022/08/peak_demand_importance.pdf
Post peak means gluts, falling oil prices, layoffs, rising cost of capital, bankruptcies. We already have some of that.
Yes! Please see my post above regarding the end of the ICE industry. Once all ICE manufacturing is over, it's over forever and for everybody. Gasoline and diesel account for over 70% of all oil used. We can literally end all of that by killing the ICE industry. We do that by making it a shameful act to buy a new gas car.
Yes, but much less than that is enough to get things moving along. A steady decline in oil demand of 1% or 3% per year will work wonders. Just passing peak demand means the industries go from growth and opportunity to decline and risk. Let the declines simmer for a year.
Now that Delhi has got it that bad air is killing its people and that electrifying transport will help, the other Indian mega-cities will follow. Bangladesh has followed already.
It's easier to sell evs to people who can't afford gas than to your California people with wallets fat with cash. What's holding the low income countries back from electrifying transport is lack of financing. Africans can get an old ICE car imported from Europe for maybe $3000. To acquire an EV requires financing and, in Africa, that's more difficult to come by than in the USA.
Appreciate the commentary. However, for bikes or e-bikes you do not address the weather: especially rain. Presumably on rainy days people go to buses or something else? Rain is a big issue in New Zealand
Rain pants, rain jacket, baseball cap under your helmet, rain guards over your shoes, waterproof commuter bag. All set! If it's really raining cats and dogs, I'll catch a ride w/a neighbor/work colleague.
My dad had a yellow raincoat he wore when it rained. It doesn't snow in the winter in the Bay Area, it rains...
I thought your Ezra Klein conversation was so interesting, and this piece is excellent — clearly you’ve done a huge amount of research and thinking on how we can travel more lightly. Your framing of e‑bikes as genuinely transformative is so compelling; in fact - it’s pushed me from “periodically browsing” to actively searching for an e‑bike. Thank you for informing people like me.
I bought my first e-bike almost 20 years ago when the batteries were lead acid, then gave it up. I bought another 9 years ago (lithium ion) and presently close in on 24,000 miles. I commuted on the e-bike until I retired and now ride to do errands and for fun. They are fun. You see and hear a lot more. Birds, flowers, the kinks in a squirrels tail, deer hiding in the woods, wild turkeys calling each other, little kestrels on fence posts, and more. Cars, even electric, separate you from life. Bikes put you closer, a let you stop to help a turtle cross the road. Who wants to kill a turtle, or even a snake? One thing you missed is the vast difference in the embodied energy between a bike and a car. My bike weighs 62 pounds. My Bolt weighs 3,600 pounds, 58 times as much, and it is a smaller EV. You can build at least 50 e-bikes with the materials and energy that goes into a single car. DEI? Yes, and let's have a lot more of it, starting with bicycle buses to school in towns and cities everywhere!
I appreciate the shout out for ebikes. I've owned several for over a decade, and they're my primary commuting vehicles year-round, from -40° to +40°C.
I would note that being concerned about throttles is a red herring. We don't want to start peeling off ebikers who happen to have a throttle that is handy for getting through a snowbank or up a steep hill when walking it. Licenses not being required is part of why they're chosen over motorcycles. They simply have to be limited to 32km/h no matter their propulsion method.
I have a different solution to this critical problem of US transportation, fossil fuel usage.
Make stringent, enforced improvements to nationwide EPA standards for the following vehicles :
Public metro buses … 3 MPG to 20 MPG
Heavy construction trucks … 5 MPG to 20
Tractor trailer trucks … 7 MPG to 25
Passenger cars … 28 MPG to
60.
Pick up truck … 21 MPG to 50
Delivery trucks … 8 MPG to 25
Rideshare vehicles … 32 MPG to 60 motorcycles … 50 MPG to 80
E Bikes … 1000 MPG to 1000 MPG
Gas guzzling inefficient vehicles not meeting Federal EPA standards are taxed on a graduated scale. Tax funds are thereafter applied to Clean Air Programs in the most polluted cities and towns in the US.
This puts the burden on the car manufacturers, designers, engineers, and transportation strategists that we have in this country to build a smarter, cleaner and efficient transportation system.
It puts big oil on notice that a catastrophe is in the making, and they can play a critical role in making sure that it doesn’t happen.
Deeply appreciated your interview with Ezra, Bill.