Denver has a problem, but it’s a good problem. The city has been eager to push e-bikes as a clean, cheaper transport solution. To that end, it’s been handing out vouchers like candy. So what’s the problem? Denverites are apparently going crazy for them, and the city simply doesn’t have enough to go around!
Bicycles are a great way to get around in some areas, but spinning a pair of pedals to get around town instead of pressing an accelerator pedal hasn’t found nearly as strong a foothold in the United States as it has in Europe and Asia. Some will say it’s the physical effort required to ride a bike that puts Americans off of pedal-powered transportation, but the e-bike has a nifty motorized way of solving that. While problems around cycling infrastructure, bike lanes, and safety still exist, e-bikes are nonetheless finding an eager user base.
That’s truer in Denver than most anywhere else. As reported by Denverite, the city is running out of e-bike vouchers as quickly as it can issue them.
Local news advised locals to be prepared for vouchers to disappear in minutes.Â
Denver has released vouchers four times this year. On Tuesday last week, it put out a further 220 vouchers, only to see them vanish in mere minutes. According to Emily Gedeon, spokesperson for the city’s climate office, that’s no surprise. Apparently 17,000 people tried to apply for a voucher—around 77 times more people than there were vouchers to accommodate.
Denverite spoke to resident Maggie Hansen who questioned whether there was a “Ticketmaster situation” going on, with the outlet likening it to the battle to secure Taylor Swift tickets. “I have a cast on my left hand, so I had to type with just my right in order to fill in the form,” Hansen told the outlet. “By the time I completed the form (first name, last name, address, phone number, & proof of residence) and pulled out my phone to take a photo of the rejection screen, it was 11:01 and 11 seconds.” Ultimately, the city confirmed it was simply extremely high demand that saw the vouchers go so quickly.
The vouchers are made available at different levels. Those who qualify for the low-income rebate can save up to $1,200 on an e-bike, or $1,400 on a cargo e-bike. Those in the “moderate income” band qualify for $700 or $900 respectively. Meanwhile, any resident can qualify for a $300 e-bike rebate or $500 cargo e-bike rebate. Those with disabilities can apply for a rebate on an adaptive rebate up to $1,400. The vouchers only apply to fully-assembled e-bikes, and must be redeemed at participating brick-and-mortar bike stores in the city. If a voucher exceeds the e-bike’s value, the user cannot redeem the difference for cash.
Rad Power Bikes is a bike shop involved in the program.
According to Denverite, nearly 8,000 people have redeemed vouchers since the program launched in 2022. A 2023 survey found that the e-bikes had replaced 3.4 car trips per week per rider on average, covering a distance of roughly 22 miles a week per rider.
Denver residents have just one more chance to secure a voucher this year. The next date to claim a voucher is Tuesday, October 29. It’s unclear how many vouchers will be made available; The Autopian has reached out to the city for information.
The popularity of the e-Bike is easy to understand in Denver. The city has over 20 miles of bike lanes downtown, along with trails around Cherry Creek and the Platte River. Those facilities make it safer to get around by bike, and electric power makes it quick and convenient. The city saw this as a great affordable transport investment, and the people of Denver are flocking to it in droves.
Is there an analog to cars here? For one, bike shops in the city seem to be bringing prices in line with the vouchers. For example, Rad Power Bikes is offering a nice-looking, entry-level bike with 35 miles of range for $1,199, or $1 below the voucher price. You see that with the used EV rebate; automakers price cars so that they qualify for rebates.
The other analog is how price brings more folks to adopt a new way of driving (that’s the whole point, really). Every time an automaker like Tesla lowers the price of vehicles or the government creates a new incentive it unlocks more buyers. While there’s reasonable resistance over performance and infrastructure, the biggest resistance, whether with cars or bikes, is probably just the number after the dollar sign.
Image credits: Rad Power Bikes via YouTube screenshot, 9News via YouTube screenshot
“The city has over 20 miles of bike lanes downtown, along with trails around Cherry Creek and the Platte River.”
Having lived in Denver area for eight years, I can say a few things…
We sometimes get blizzard almost every week or two for a few months. Snow removal procedure prioritises the streets and roads over the sidewalks and bicycle lanes. Those small mountains of snow plowed away from the streets and piled up onto the sidewalks and bicycle lanes. They can take days or weeks to be fully melted into messy piles of rock splinters. So good luck trying to transverse them. (People with wheelchairs or mobility disabilities complain about it ALL THE TIME for years).
During the summer, we get thunderstorms so often, usually in the afternoons. So have fun getting all soaked if you happen to forget the rain gear at home.
Not all of Denver area has the dedicated bike lanes. So, hone your road warrior skills when riding the bikes. Not every driver is cognitive and situational aware of the bike riders…
On one hand, the bike infra in Denver is probably the best in the US. On the other hand, that’s a very low bar to clear. It’s great for going on a bike ride, but hit-or-miss in terms of actually using it as transportation.
I think this is Autopian’s 1st bike article? Seems pretty popular which is good…I used to mountain bike a ton
One quote to call out, “Some will say it’s the physical effort required to ride a bike that puts Americans off of pedal-powered transportation”
As others have mentioned, and many studies and surveys have shown the main hang up against biking is feeling safe on the roads with the infrastructure/driving culture that exists.
There are interviews out there where (from the UK) where people presented with data saying bike crash fatalities are orders of magnitude smaller than fatalities from automotive only crashes, justify it with “that’s because of all the bikes on the road”.
Bikes need to be normalized and seen as valid road users. And the best way to do that is design infrastructure to make that obvious (unfortunately an expensive and an idea way behind implementation.
Being seen as a human being, or even just a valid road user (people psychologically tend to treat cars as enemy objects more than people of the same species interestingly) is still way better than being seen as a nuisance who should not be there.
austin is doing the same. austin energy is giving rebates for switching to an ebike.
Nice idea. I live in a big city and have sold my daily driver and are doing all my commutes on e-bike. Keeping my two classics (356 and Figaro) for all the nice and happy relaxed drives 🙂
I couldn’t live with the idea of not using my best “regular” bike though, so bought a Yose conversion kit for it. Fun project. Works perfectly!
https://www.instagram.com/p/C4swzRmoeJt/
Cost me under 500 USD in all.
I have a Class 1 utility bike that I ride occasionally for errands and the work commute when I had one. I did some research and wanted one with some local support that was inexpensive but had good professional reviews and ended up with an REI-branded bike that was $998 at the beginning of August 2023 (no subsidies for any alt-fuel vehicles here), and it’s good for my use case. I live in a flat area (one underpass on my usual route) with a standard street grid and streetcar suburban density, and no street I use has a limit over 25 mph (most got lowered to 20 mph recently), so I can keep up with traffic. Sidewalk riding is legal here and they’re usually empty, so I use them once in a while if I don’t feel motivated to go over 10 mph and I pull into the lane if I see anyone ahead.
I like the idea of transportation with reduced environmental impact and some exercise potential, but if I didn’t already understand the appeal of a Town Car with the A/C maxed out before I got it, I certainly did after riding on even a normal spring or fall day (let alone summer) or that time I took my suspension-free bike through an 18th-19th century neighborhood with cobblestones.
I wouldn’t mind a throttle because we didn’t have showers at my old office and now that I’ve reacclimated myself to riding (there were some close calls on Line bikes before I bought this) I wouldn’t mind Class 3 speeds because 20 mph seems like too little speed for the effort (relative to my standard operating torpor, anyway) I’m putting in. But for my errands and commute trips of one to four miles, it’s almost as quick as a car, sometimes enjoyable, and the integrated racks can carry a fair amount of stuff.
Is anyone surprised by this? Give out free* stuff in limited quantities and it will run out. If you gave out 700 vouchers for couches you would get the same result.
*someone must pay always
Yeah, and JD Vance would write a script so he could get them all.
Don’t act like none of the rest of you were thinking it.
Endeavor to live your life in such a way that, if someone starts a rumor that you molest couches, people don’t immediately think that sounds like you.
I will say I can appreciate this program and can see value in it. These rebate programs fundamental miss the mark on actually creating new cyclist. Real, if we go off ride to work schemes, they are primarily a way for current cyclist to upgrade. If a city is interested in creating new cyclist, in America the main focus should be infrastructure. People, have a strong aversion to getting hit by a car. Every study shows that the danger of doing just that is the number one reason people will not ride a bike. Even more than hills, and weather. Look at your three top bike commuting cities Portland, Minneapolis, and Boston. Two out of three are fairly hill, and only an insane man goes to Minneapolis for the weather. But, like baseball in Iowa and Chick-fil-a, build it and they will come. So, overall, while this isn’t the worse use of gov money. The city of Denver would probably find a better result, if they just built a damn bike lane.
It’s ridiculous the things the anti-bike crows will say makes biking impractical in the US that aren’t infrastructure. Yet every single one of those factors has many modern and historical counterpoints.
Build more bike lanes. The more separated from traffic, the better. Make roads more narrow and slower. Reduce speed limits and introduce traffic calming. I work and do the majority of my shopping within a 2 mile radius of my house, but I’d never dream of defaulting to a bike or walking because there’s no way to get to these places without having to ride on or cross at least one or two dangerous stretches of road. Fix that and I’d almost never drive.
I can see why the vouchers are so popular and run out so fast. I’d try for one too if I lived in the area even if I only used the bike for around the park.
I’ve built multiple ebikes.
Most of the commercially-available ones are trash, IMO. Most of the ones I’ve seen have inadequate brakes, wheels, tires, and frames, and often us proprietary electronics that are not user-repairable. I’m able to build something better for less than half the cost, and everything on them is repairable with basic tools, the electronics themselves user-programmable and plug and play.
The Panasonic NCR18650GAs I’m building packs with were stripped from abandoned commercial bikes that either stopped working and weren’t repairable due to proprietary software, or the company renting them went under and electronically locked all the units on purpose. What a waste.
I bought a Rad Power bike for my daughter.
I’m absolutely not going to build my own. It’s really cool that you do!! But I don’t have time or interest in that.
So, for a commercial bike, it has standard bike sized tires, standard brakes and other components. Mechanically, it could be fixed at any bike shop.
Electronically? Ya, it’s certainly a proprietary system, but hey, so is my toaster. I’m not going to build my own toaster either. (Seriously, modern toasters have microelectronics. WTF?)
Edit: Side note, had the Rad power bike for 2 years now. It’s been great!
Planned obsolescence. Some models even have wifi connectivity that reports all usage data.
The microcontroller is a dirt cheap addition, prohibitively expensive to repair when it fails, and instead of you being able to fix your toaster with a soldering iron, you’ll chuck it in a landfill and buy a new one instead when the time comes.
As an electrical engineer, I like my technology to be DUMB.
ebike owner not from denver. I think reckless driving/cycling behavior is perfectly fineable, and that goes acoustic or electric. I do however think throttles are a 100% safety necessity for the 99% of the US that has to share any amount of traffic with gigantic cars and trucks. I’d be all for regulating the top speed at which throttles can activate (with strong enforcement) to ~15mph or whatever around that. The big key is being able to take off at a safe speed from stops where cars are not automatically trying to pass you when it is unsafe to do so.
But overall, with US speed limits being 25-35mph in the majority of city streets (school zones are the only 15mph areas in most metros), obviously the closer to that a bike is going, the fewer interactions cars have trying to ruin someones day.
I’ll stick with my DYI bikes and ride appropriately. I’m not going to blow past people on sidewalks or trail ride faster/more aggressively than is safe.
—
Side note / contraversial opinion for my ebike enthusiasts…. torque sensing is ludicrously overrated for everything other than eMTB, and the real problems most people have with cadence sensors is not that they don’t like the idea (fixed power input per level with your own additional power on top of that is actually what 95%+ of people should actually be getting/using for commuting and cargo), it is the implementation on many historically cheap bikes that sucks.
I would agree that a throttle helps on takeoff for a novice rider. For most experienced riders (and efficiency minded new riders) the 95% weight savings vs. a car make a bike able to out accelerate a car in most scenarios (when you don’t forget to downshift).
Anecdotally I often slow down once I cross the intersection to use the road widening around the intersection to let the line from behind pass safer.
I’m not an expert rider or anything, but I emphatically do not agree that any other than the most aggressive riders riding unloaded/lightly loaded keep up the natural start of traffic. And while, I too will move over if it is safe to do so, that also often is not an option.
For me, a hard all out push from a stop ends up a bit over 800W on an acoustic start (albeit that only represents a bit under 4 W/kg including gear/bike). That is only a 0.14g start. Traffic is NOT slower than 0.14G at the front of the line. At the back, sure, but not at the light.
There are studies to this effect btw, 2002 Krause study in Germany pegged the second to fourth quintile acceleration was 0.15 to 0.25g from setting off from rest. Cars have not gotten slower since 2002. I routinely see people pulling 0.3-0.5 normal starts from a stop in my area (equivalent to 0-60 between 6 and 10s).
And that is on a flat. Downhill, it is rare anyone needs it, but uphill almost everyone would use it.
(Those calculations obviously assume you are neither carrying extra load, nor lose any time to improper/shifting gears.)
Of course they are. I’m super dubious of ebikes, but if someone offered to give me one for free (which is basically what they’re doing) I wouldn’t turn it down. Add in the fact that Denver is one of the more outdoorsy cities in the US and you have a perfect storm of demand.
I bought a Rad e-bike last year that would have been basically free. Different model, but it’s been great. There are definitely a lot more options at roughly that pricepoint now, then there were last year.
There’s a similar program here in central MA. My wife applied and got a voucher for up to $1500. Bike has been ordered. We’re kinda in a rural area with narrow windy roads and rarely see anyone on bikes. It’ll be interesting to see how it works or doesn’t work out.
I am seeing a lot of comments here that aren’t distinguishing between Level 1 and Level 2 e-bikes. I ride a Level 1 e-bike which is strictly an electric pedal assist. So I can’t go more than about 30 kph unless I’m on a crazy down hill. I am regularly passed by super athletic people on analog bikes. I’m not a fan of the Level 2 e-bikes (these are the ones that have a throttle) as they really are more like mopeds.
I love my e-bike as it allows me to more easily get up hills. It genuinely cuts down on the number of car trips I take, especially if I am going somewhere where parking is a pain.
In NYC all the delivery guys have Level 2s and they are extremely inconsiderate on them. I don’t think anything in the bike lane should have the ability to go 30mph or more. I ride an electric city bike on the reg and yeah, downhill you can get 20-21mph but really you’re just making a commute a little easier at a steady 12-14mph
Anything that provides powered assist past 28 mph isn’t compliant with any classification. Class 2 only allows 20 mph w throttle. Class 3 allows 28.
Now… tbh… I don’t think 20 mph is safe for most people outside of hyper-dense car traffic (or dedicated trails). Being stuck into 35mph roads (common) going 20 mph when your road bike can do 30+ on a flat or slight downhill is a moving roadblock and a great way to be killed by a car.
They’re truly a menace
You won’t like my AWD e-trike. It will be capable of 0-60 mph in under 4 seconds and a top speed of over 85 mph when complete. And if I turn the motors off, it will still have the aerodynamics for me to pedal it to 40+ mph on the flat after about a mile or so of full effort sprinting. Will be running no less than 20 kW peak power and 400+ Nm of torque, and it will weigh around 100 lbs or so. My intent is to troll the local Hellcats with this thing.
Consider yourself fortunate that NYC delivery folks use e-bikes in bike lanes. All those jerks in Toronto use sidewalks (even where bike lanes exist). Basically racing along on their electric motorcycles through crowds of pedestrians to get get people their junk food. I love the tech. I hate the lack of enforcement or even education.
yeah if someone was riding one of these on a sidewalk i’d be lowering my shoulder
Yes! Trying to get around NYC as a pedestrian has always meant watching out for the crazy automobile drivers, but now you have to watch for e-bikes flying down the bike lanes. Some of those guys apparently don’t give a fuck about running into someone trying to cross the street.
So why are these not mopeds? Where I’m from a bicycle with a gas engine is a moped and must be plated as such and you cannot go on bike trails and you must be above a certain age. Swap out the gas engine for an electric motor (which oftentimes goes faster) and suddenly it’s all okay?
The law is always a time zone behind, but they’re also being pulled the other way by concerns about the environment to not want to stifle adoption. In MA, they’re not allowed on bike trails, though that doesn’t stop them from being there. Personally, I have no problem as long as they keep to reasonable speeds (plenty of spandex AHs on non-EV bikes speeding on these as it is, though at least you tend not to see them on gravel trails), but it’s that last part that’s the problem. Absolutely agree that they are effectively mopeds. Roll the clock back, there were motorized gasoline bicycles that weren’t as powerful and weren’t regulated as mopeds, so taking that as a potential starting point, perhaps only E-bikes over 250 or 350W should need to be registered (EU power limit is 250W, US is generally 750W)? That keeps adoption up, but the speeds will naturally be more restricted and the more powerful bikes would have at least some semblance of accountability. As with any of this, though, who will enforce it? At least they’re quiet and don’t smell like mopeds, I guess.
This! Prior to the ebike craze, in one of our previous houses, we had a walk/bike trail right behind the house, which was great.
But you’d get the 20 speed riding spandex Lance Armstrong wannabees flying past you on the trail on the downhill, while trying to just have a nice walk with the dogs, same guys that when we had a tree fall on the trail behind the house and I got my chainsaw out and cleared it they just zoom past without so much as a thanks, sitting there thinking maybe I’ll move this log back for them.
Other times I saw kids with beachcomber style bikes with a little 50cc engine attached just puttering along and was like, well that’s fine.
Unfortunately the law can’t enforce courtesy.
They’re the worst. I have no issues with any other group in bike culture. I can’t stand those entitled dicks and I’m convinced no small amount of road rage against cyclists is due to their behavior. I stopped riding my road bike (which I only ever rode in normal clothes) due to the aggressive encounters with cars riding the same way I always do, following the rules and acting like I’m invisible. When I ride my ACME rocket bike or USAAF tribute bike with its roll up canvas panniers, I have none of those kinds of encounters (especially on the yellow, turquoise, and hot pink rocket bike—everyone loves it, including people I thought I’d have issues with due to the pink and to paraphrase Roger Rabbit, people don’t want to kill you if you make them laugh), so I think people see drop handlebars and associate it with the spendex jerks that did something to piss them off somewhere else. When I ride the other bikes, I’m obviously not one of those clowns, so no issues. But, it’s not about me, especially where most trails around me are gravel and their wuss bikes apparently can’t handle a bit of dirt, what bothers me is when they’re on a place like the Minute Man rail trail, a nice scenic paved trail running from historic Concord to Cambridge, MA. Parents take kids to learn to ride on it, people cruise along on old bikes or go for walks, get ice cream, there are dog walkers, etc. It’s not a place for trying to beat some personal Strava record nobody is impressed by, but there they are practically kicking kids out of the way as they shoot through at high speed with their haughty, impatient “on your left” traveling in packs so they have enough numbers not to get beat down. OK, OK, I’m going to have to end it there.
The American River Bike Trail is one of the best reasons to live in Sacramento, but Sac also attracts (or develops) a lot of hardcore cyclists. The speed limit on the trail is 15 mph, but you always need to be on the lookout for a little peloton of road bikes ripping along at half again that speed or more. Add the little kids weaving all over the place on their bikes and it’s a wonder we don’t end up with people getting killed on a weekly basis.
Our government is fat and slow and can’t react quickly enough.
On the bike paths in Madison, I am starting to see drunks/druggies who lost their licenses commuting on overpowered ebikes, because they lost their drivers licenses.
I’m not far away in Elkhorn, same story here with the wayward crowd sadly.
Denver resident here. And yes, bikes are great.. but these things are a menace. They go scooter fast and live by bike rules. So you have now a ton of people on these fast cycles that dont know riding etiquette, bicycle laws, or where to ride them.
People on sidewalks, people blowing red lights (which is legal in denver), people going very very fast on walking paths and trails.
Its all of the worst parts of the rental scooters with the legal protections of regular bicycles.
Sidewalks is my concern. I see people doing an easy 30 mph down sidewalks, blowing out in to roads they simply don’t have the time to look down because of stuff blocking the view from the sidewalk until you hit the corner etc. Many of the dangers of a motorcycle being ridden around in traffic, even fewer attempts avoid being an idiot.
That’s a lack of enforcement of existing laws. Even pedal bikes shouldn’t be on sidewalks (unless children under 12, though that might vary by state). Of course, pointing that out is not a solution and I doubt education would make much difference where common sense and observation has already failed. Maybe people should start carrying spoke sticks?
You are correct. We are dealing with a pre-existing perception in the US that bikes are ok on sidewalks (legal or not), so its still something we very much have to overcome. And yeah, much as I like the thought of the spoke stick, I don’t know what the actual solution is.
Yeah, that wasn’t a serious suggestion as a solution. IDK, all I can do is follow the rules myself (except in some cases where there’s a safety question, but if I ever have to sidewalk-it, I dismount and walk) and hope that sets an example. (It doesn’t.) Worst bike rule breakers I see are mostly in three categories: kids, DUI-looking people, and roadies on overpriced plastic junk who are too good to stop for lights or any other rule they don’t feel like following. The latter pisses me off the most because they’re the most numerous, definitely know better, and are old enough to possess proper judgement. If they’re out there “training” I would think stopping and starting again would give them more of a workout (I’m sure they’d give me some dumb BS about maintaining specific heart rates or whatever garbage excuse they have to suck).
Omg around here it is ALWAYS the well-to-do retiree set that is flying down the sidewalk at 30mph. Gotta get in that workout before happy hour!
Non Denver – e-bike owner here. You are correct that the riders are the problem. My bike can go 37 mph, and I stick exclusively to surface streets, and ride according to the laws that motorcycles are bound to. I stop at red lights, and stop signs. I use hand signals for turns, and I also wear a full face helmet when riding. My safety is my biggest concern when on the bike, and in order to keep myself safe its imperative to ride in a rational predictable manor, especially when your ability to move is 5x quicker than a standard pedal bike.
Also cars see a person on a bike, and cannot comprehend how quickly you are approaching them on an e-bike, so if you are approaching a car coming the opposite direction who wants to turn left, they think they have all day to make the turn before you reach them. Always expect them to turn and be prepared to hit the brakes quickly.
agree. I’m in the suburbs but see kids flying around on Super73s (at least most are wearing helmets). When I ride my ebike I only use peddle assist on dedicated bike paths.
Bikes should not be on sidewalks and follow the rules of the road like cars. Being able to go 25-30+mph makes it safer when on local streets as you are going close to the same speed as cars
Laws are always lagging behind new technologies.
Cars were a menace to horses and pedestrians for many years.
Adapting existing infrastructure to new tech is a decades long process.
Governments can no longer keep up with the pace of corporate advancement.
It only gets worse from here.
We’re in a small mountain community, and a year or so ago had a double fatality when a 20 something year old was riding after dark, no light, no helmet, and hit an old guy walking his dog, both died. The issue certainly isn’t exclusive to ebikes though, just people in general with any sort of powered vehicle, with people in cars regularly driving double the speed limit through the community, no-lights dirt bikes ripping around after dark, etc, I’m kind of surprised there aren’t people getting hit by all manners of vehicles on a regular basis.
I do like having a fat tire ebike for backcountry skiing access though, as long as snowmobile tracks are well packed, it does pretty well. It’s also entertaining riding with skis on as outriggers as long as there are no uphills that need me to pedal. I also use it around the community towing the 3 year old in a trailer, but have almost been hit multiple times, most recently by a motorcycle passing me as I pulled into my driveway, with a turn signal on.
Great! I assume most of those bike trips are commuting to and from work each day?