Every day, Californians make 2 million trips by bike. Many of those trips replace car trips, but, too often, people who bike for some of their trips choose to drive a car for other trips because the journey is too challenging to do by bicycle. E-bikes can change that.
E-bikes make it easy to travel farther, faster, and over more challenging terrain than a regular bike. Studies of North American e-bike users show that up to 75% of e-bike trips replace car trips.
Electric bicycles can transform green transportation. Now California is stepping up to support e-bike purchases.
CalBike’s campaign to create a $10 million e-bike affordability program will change this. We succeeded in getting $10 million into the 2022 budget to fund e-bike purchase incentives. The E-Bike Affordability program will help put 10,000 more e-bikes on the road, potentially replacing millions of car trips. Find out more about California’s $10M E-Bike Affordability Program.
6 more reasons to that e-bikes should be affordable for all Californians:
- California’s current strategies are not working to reduce greenhouse gases in the transportation sector. We need to do something different. A large increase in e-bike use could replace enough car trips to reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly.
- The price of an electric bike is out of reach for many Californians. The purchase incentives in AB 117 will give people who couldn’t otherwise afford an e-bike the financial support they need.
- E-bikes cost pennies to charge. They are one of the most efficient, convenient, and cheap to operate forms of transportation. E-bikes will save families money.
- E-bikes allow people who couldn’t otherwise ride to get out on a bike. An electric motor lets you carry heavy loads and passengers you might not be able to manage under your own power.
- E-bikes help people become healthier and happier. Bike riding reduces health care costs, improves air quality, and provides excellent exercise. E-bikes replace smog-spewing car trips and allow more people to realize the health benefits of bikes.
- E-bikes give people who live in public transit deserts an affordable alternative to costly car dependency.
Sign to support CalBike’s e-bike affordability program today.