Walk Bike Berkeley produced an analysis of e-bikes in November 2019 as part of public comment for the City of Berkeley California's Electric Mobility Roadmap. Berkeley's 2019 Roadmap sought to reduce the City's climate emissions from transportation, primarily through switching to electric vehicles. The Walk Bike Berkeley report (E-bikes: Key to Berkeley’s Climate & Public Safety Goals (pdf)) compared e-bikes to gas and electric powered cars and concluded that there would be multiple benefits of expanding the Roadmap to include e-bikes. Among its findings were that:
E-bikes are highly efficient and produce much less carbon than EVs (Electric vehicles). Walk Bike Berkeley's testing revealed fuel efficiency of 2200 to 3800 MPGe, making E-bikes 20 to 35 times more efficient to operate than all-electric automobiles and with far lower embodied energy and carbon. [Since the Berkeley study we have expanded our monitoring to a large number of e-bikes, including some with no pedal assist. Not surprisingly we have found a wider range of efficiencies ranging from just over 1000 MPGe to almost 4000 MPGe. See Results page for more findings.]
E-bikes are better than EVs for individual and community health, traffic congestion and infrastructure. They have lower particulate matter emissions, encourage exercise, reduce the underlying cause of most traffic fatalities and severe injuries (high mass, high velocity cars and trucks), reduce congestion, take up much less room on the streets and in parking, facilitate emergency evacuations and reduce road wear.
E-bikes are flexible, easy to use and can make cycling attractive to people who won’t or can’t use a regular bike. E-bikes come in many varieties, supporting everyone from the lightly loaded single commuter to the family with children and groceries to the senior who needs a little extra help to get around on a bike. Controls are intuitive and easy to learn. The power adjusts to the cyclists’ needs automatically. Starting from a stop is easier than on a regular bike.
E-bikes have the range and capacity to replace most Berkeley automobile trips within Berkeley and between Berkeley and neighboring cities, including first-mile/last-mile trips to transit. They are excellent for trips that are challenging for conventional non electric powered bicycles due to the energy and sweat factor or time - including business meetings, hauling kids and groceries. climbing steep hills and longer distance trips. They excel at trip types that have previously been assumed to be out of range for all but the most fit cyclists.
E-bike subsidies are more cost effective and more equitable: With much lower purchase and operating costs than EVs and requiring no build out of charging infrastructure, e-bikes can be a useful tool to expand affordable, equitable transportation access. This can include low income, older and differently abled people. E-bike subsidies have been shown to go farther and can leverage more transportation services and more carbon savings per dollar than electric car subsidies.
The report included a list of suggested measures to incentivize the use of e-bikes. For more, read the entire report E-bikes: Key to Berkeley’s Climate & Public Safety Goals (pdf)
The City of Berkeley staff agreed and crafted new goals to prioritize walking and cycling first for its April 2020 Electric Mobility Roadmap revision. The new Roadmap incorporates most of the strategies we recommended to use e-bikes to move more people out of cars for many of their trips. Berkeley City Council adopted the new Roadmap on July 23, 2020. City staff and Council have expressed interest in developing programs based on it in 2021.
This E-bike Monitoring Project seeks to continue the data gathering started for this report to better understand e-bike energy usage across a broader range of e-bikes and users.
More studies on e-bikes - how and why people ride them, their impacts and the effectiveness of incentive programs - can be found at the ClimateAction Center's E-bike Studies page.