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The E-Bike Effect Is Transforming New York City
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The E-Bike Effect Is Transforming New York City
At least, it can when it’s one of Citi Bike’s next-generation models, which will begin appearing in docks across the bikesharing network this week. With a sleek silver frame and an LCD screen atop the handlebars, the new bikes are a noticeable upgrade from the standard cobalt-blue two-wheelers that have become so familiar on the city’s streets. As I rode one up Eighth Avenue with Laura Fox, the general manager of Citi Bike at Lyft, we drew stares from the sidewalk and an entourage of curious riders in our wake. To get more news about ebike mirrors, you can visit magicyclebike.com official website.
“Something that's been top of mind for us is this idea that everyone’s a bike person,” Fox said, as we arrived in Central Park. “People are like, ‘Oh yeah, bike lanes and bikes are nice, but not everyone is going to ride.’ And when you look at other countries’ contexts, that’s just not true. So we wanted to bring the principle of simplicity to the bike ride.”
Capped at 20 miles per hour, this new e-bike can go 60 miles before needing a charge, twice the range of the previous model. It’s 20 pounds heavier, too, with hydraulic brakes and a sturdier frame.
New York is the third U.S. city to get the model, which premiered under the Lyft banner in San Francisco in June 2021 and later with Chicago’s Divvy system. But Citi Bike — the largest bikeshare system outside of China — will be its biggest proving ground. In New York City, bikes can be used 10 to 15 times per day, says Fox. (In 2018, Lyft acquired Motivate, which owned Citi Bike.)According to Lyft’s 2022 Multimodal Report, Citi Bike’s 5,000-strong electric fleet made up 32% of the nearly 28 million rides taken in 2021, even though they only make up 20% of the fleet. On average, they’re used three times more often per day compared to classics.
The surge of Citi Bike’s battery-powered rides mirrors a larger trend unfolding on the streets of New York City. Practically everywhere you look, people are riding electric two-wheelers — delivery workers bearing take-out orders, sightseers on Citi Bikes, families on e-cargo bikes, or just individuals on their own models. Three electric bike dealerships have opened within a few blocks from my apartment recently. There is little data on e-bike usage itself, but the nearly 7 million rides on Citi Bike last year, compared to 2.7 million in 2020, is probably a good indication of how electrification has boosted the overall popularity of bicycles in the city.
It’s been a remarkable transformation for a city where all e-bikes were technically illegal until 2018. E-bikes, whether you ride them or not, stand to play an outsized role in shaping the city’s transportation picture for years to come. They could help tame the city’s resurgent traffic and reduce the sector’s stubbornly large carbon footprint by replacing shorter trips now taken in private cars, cabs or ride-hailing vehicles. And their rapid uptake could place greater pressure on planners to adjust city streets accordingly. But thorny issues around costs, infrastructure, equity and safety persist.
The Cost Factor
Pamela Martinez, who recently immigrated to the Bronx from the Dominican Republic, always considered e-bikes too expensive. New ones average $1,500 or more; cheaper models exist, but Martinez didn’t trust their durability. She had a pedal-only bike, but the hills of her Hunts Point neighborhood were intimidating. Especially with two kids in tow.“Here, you have to have a really good body to pedal,” she said. “And with the kids at school, sometimes I had to go back and forth from work, because a kid is sick or they leave for lunch.”
That was before she obtained a RadWagon, an electric cargo bike popular with families because of its kid-hailing potential. It lists for about $2,000, but Martinez only paid half that, thanks to the Equitable Commute Project, an initiative led by the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives that links residents living in neighborhoods known for long commutes to subsidized electric mobility options. She learned about the program through her workplace and paid her share of the purchase price with the help of a loan by SpringBank, the CDFI that acts as a financial partner. “It was the easiest process of my life,” she said.
Like many e-bike owners I’ve spoken with, Martinez is in love with hers; after we spoke, she emailed me photos of her orange bike, with her kids in the back, smiling. “I can go to the supermarket with a six-year old and a baby, and I don’t feel it,” she told me. She feels more confident zipping around cars, she said, since she can keep up — a facet particularly important to female riders, who encounter an outsized risk of abuse and harassment from drivers. Soon, their collection may expand. “I always say to my husband, ‘I'm going to take it’ and he’ll say ‘No, I need it,’” Martinez said. “So we need another one.”