Several outer-borough neighborhoods could soon become part of an innovative e-bike subsidy program to reduce the areas' high car dependency, low access to public transit and excessive production of air-choking pollution.
E-bikes have long been shown to replace car trips in other parts of the country, but Bike New York, with a state grant in hand, will evaluate how well the cleaner and sustainable rides will replace car trips in parts of the urban environment where car ownership is relatively high.
The goal would be an e-bike subsidy program that wouldn't just be a transit replacement for people without cars, but one that would actually reduce driving.
“Replacing car trips is one of the goals of this grant,” said Jon Orcutt, Bike New York’s advocacy director and former Department of Transportation official. “We’re thinking about Brooklyn and Queens beyond the subways, or the northern end of the Bronx where transit trips are very long or not very well served.”
Studies show that e-bikes are effective in reducing the amount of miles driven in cars, since, according to the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics, more than half of all trips in the United States are less than three miles — the ideal jaunt on an e-bike. But car owners often default to making car trips because the vehicle is right outside.
But a different economic incentive could change that, said Ryan Birkicht, the communications director of People For Bikes.
"By making e-bikes more affordable, [a program like this would] advance climate and equity goals while providing a reliable mobility option for underserved communities," he told Streetsblog.
Since the goal is not eliminating car ownership but use, subsidies are increasing even in states where cars are considered a necessity because so many short trips can be easily done by e-bike; Colorado, Washington, Minnesota, and Maine all have programs to incentivize e-bike use.
And Washington D.C. residents can get up to $2,000 for purchasing an electric cargo bike. New York has been slow to join the fray. The first e-bike subsidy in the state will launch as a pilot this spring in Buffalo.
New Yorkers with higher incomes, who own their homes, or who live in single-family districts, are more likely to own cars, with the average car owner in the city earning nearly twice as much as their car-free counterparts. Geography has a lot to do with it as well. In the city, only 45 percent of households have access to a car, so Bike New York will focus on neighborhoods like Community District 13 in Southeast Queens, where 84 percent of households have at least one car, according to census data.
E-bike subsidies would certainly be used in areas like Williamsburg in Brooklyn, where only 34 percent of households have car access. But many parents are already using e-bikes to haul their kids from place to place, pick up groceries and run other errands. And car ownership is low, so the subsidy would not be reducing car trips, but merely helping residents afford a new e-bike.
Orcutt said Bike New York’s goal is to fix some of the problems with other electric vehicle and e-bike subsidy programs in other states by making sure that the people using the subsidies actually need them and live in areas that are less served by transit and are less-bikeable with a non-electric bike.
Electric car subsidies were a priority for the prior federal administration as a way to make the transportation sector slightly less polluting. But because e-cars carry such a high price tag, modest subsidies don’t always convince those who can't afford a new EV to make the purchase. With e-bikes, a little goes a long way and a subsidy of $500- $1,000 can make a big difference in helping a family afford the car-replacing vehicle.
“Some of this grew out of public disgust of California’s electric car incentives, which turned out to be a huge subsidy to the rich,” said Orcutt. "As e-bikes grew in popularity, we thought we could do this differently."
The same New York State Energy Research and Development Authority that is funding Bike New York’s grant also awarded another nine $100,000 “clean mobility” grants aimed to support e-bike or e-scooter ownership in cities throughout the state.
New Yorkers who want to help Bike New York gather data on consumer needs can fill out this survey.
