Atlanta e-bike riders doubt success of financial incentives to transform transportation

Nov. 29, 2021

By Keely Bastow 

The Atlanta City Council approved the operation of e-bikes and e-scooters in Atlanta in June, but riders say that without proper investment in e-bike infrastructure, like protected bike lanes, this will do little to transition transportation in the city to more sustainable modes.

E-bikes have zero emissions and have the potential to transform micromobility in the city. Most e-bike riders use the electric alternative as a replacement for car trips, research shows. Typical trips in a city are less than 10 miles and these vehicles are an easy substitute because they can travel up to 20 mph without effort from the rider. E-scooters are similar but replace cars at a lower rate because they don’t go as fast or as far.

Noa Banayan, federal affairs director of People for Bikes, said that if 15% of people started using e-bikes instead of cars, “we could reduce the CO₂ emissions by 11 percent.”

Atlanta e-bike user Betsy Collins said better investment in bike infrastructure would help encourage new riders. “We just make it so easy for people to drive that it’s more of a knee jerk reaction for people to go to their cars.”

An e-bike at the South River Trail Entrenchment Creek Trail Head in Atlanta, GA. Kress Tarleton/Facebook

The city council hopes making these e-vehicles available will help reduce car traffic in the city, which has long been rated as one of the nation’s worst for congestion.

Atlanta initiative to encourage e-vehicle use

The Atlanta City Council approved Bird, Spin, and Lime to roll out a fleet of 500 e-scooters each and Spin and Lime to roll out 500 e-bikes, too, starting in June 2021 with the Shared Dockless Mobility Device Program. Atlanta had allowed these vehicles in 2019, but the companies pulled out of the city due to high costs and low use during the pandemic.

City councilmember Howard Shook was the only member to vote against approving the e-bikes and e-scooters. In an email interview he said, “there was simply no reason to believe that the [Department of City Planning] would be able to keep the ‘vehicles’ from piling up on sidewalks and handicap ramps.” Shook continued to say that the safety element of them “almost certainly” being ridden on sidewalks discouraged him as well.

As a part of the approval, Spin, Lime and Bird are authorized to operate the approved number of vehicles from June 2021 to July 2022 and can expand the size of the fleet monthly if approved by the Department of City Planning.

Every month the operators must file a report to the Department of City Planning with user and safety data. This will be used when considering expansions of the program. The companies pay $12,000 per 500 vehicles.

Federal support for e-bike investment

The city council approval came before the Biden Administration rolled out its reconciliation bill, which includes incentives for electric vehicle users. The proposal includes the E-BIKE Act, which Banayan says is a “low-cost way for the government to incentivize an emission-less form of transportation.”

Additionally, in the House version of the Build Back Better bill there is the Bicycle Commuter Act. The act would reinstate commuter benefits, to the cost of $81 a month to be used to subsidize bicycle purchases or rental payments. Bird, Lime, and Spin users would be eligible for this incentive of up to $1000 a year.

Banayan said tax incentives are important, “but they have to come in tandem with investments in infrastructure to make it safer to use.”

Incentives not enough for some Atlanta e-bike riders

Paul Supawanich is an avid e-bike rider. He bought an e-bike in Atlanta because he didn’t want to use a car for his in-city trips, but he needed some assistance with hills around the city. He says Atlanta has bike-friendly areas, but there are a lot of places that aren’t as safe for bikers, and those spots can discourage people from riding.

“There’s a lot of gaps in our network,” Supawanich said in an interview.

He thinks people won’t use e-bikes as a primary mode of transportation “if there’s one bad experience or one nasty intersection to navigate.”

There are some good bike paths in Atlanta like the Beltline project, but they often aren’t connected between neighborhoods in a cohesive network. In addition, some riders complain of high speed limits and lack of protection for bikers.

Atlanta e-bike rider John Gregory Wyman says, “the roads are scary in Atlanta.” Between the aggressive driving, speeding and illegal motorists, “It’s definitely a dangerous place to ride.”

Wyman supports protected bike lanes and bike highways like he’s experienced in European cities. He recalled riding in Copenhagen where there were “bicycle superhighways” that were separate from vehicular traffic.

“It involves a lot of investment on the part of the community,” he said. “It’s not cheap.”

Questionable support from city council

The cost of building protected bike lanes is comparable to building new roads, between $10 and $12 million per mile for both. So far, e-bike riders are doubtful that the Atlanta City Council is making investment in this type of transportation a priority.

Wyman says he’s talked to all the members and when he brings up this sort of investment, “they seem to glaze over.” He doesn’t know of a single member who rides an e-bike to work.

“You don’t have to look very far to see that the city of Atlanta has not been investing in bicycle infrastructure ever,” he said.

This most recent approval for dockless e-vehicles makes use of this type of green transportation more accessible for first time users, but the lack of safety infrastructure around the city may keep new users from choosing to operate them.

Supawanich says the policies towards non-car transportation from the city council lean on the “status quo,” and aren’t a priority. He notes that when he lived in San Francisco there was a local incentive process, “Cash for Clunkers,” which was effective. People could trade in their cars and polluting vehicles for electric alternatives like e-bikes. He hasn’t seen this type of local incentive in Atlanta yet, and it is those local initiatives that must be in place for a change to happen in the city, he said.

Shook says the Atlanta City Council does encourage bike use, citing an ordinance that requires electric charging stations in private parking garages and a recent collaboration with the Atlanta Bike Coalition to expand existing bike trails. This project, Shook says, will create a network of multi-use trails that he says will be “the envy of the nation.” However, these trails are largely not on city streets and so may not affect the traffic congestion in the city.

The benefits to using an e-bike are significant; reduced carbon emissions, less gas usage, decreased need for parking in a crowded city, and an e-bike ride is often faster than a car ride because of the city’s traffic.

While riders largely don’t find council members receptive to e-bike priorities, Supawanich said that he is hopeful that private sector investment in the city will “move the narrative” on e-bike infrastructure, and make the city a safer place to bike.