Be it for financial, health or environmental reasons, getting Americans to replace car trips with bike trips and other modes of active or public transportation remains an uphill battle. America is the land of the automobile, and the lawmakers continue to balk at any investments or incentives to bring about change.
In the week ahead of the National Bike Summit, two bills were introduced in Congress, pushing for safer bike infrastructure and more affordable e-bikes.
Democratic lawmakers have reintroduced the so-called Electric Bicycle Incentive Kickstart for the Environment (E-BIKE (opens in new tab)) Act, which would give Americans a tax credit of up to $1,500 when purchasing a new electric bike.
E-bikes are gaining traction as a solution to curb both emissions and traffic problems. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics reports that 52% of all trips in the U.S. are less than three miles (opens in new tab), and nearly 60 percent of vehicle trips are less than 6 miles away from drivers’ homes. Even if just 15 percent of these car trips were made by e-bike, carbon emissions would drop by 12 percent (opens in new tab).
Even so, when the E-BIKE Act was first introduced in 2021 to lessen the financial hurdle to obtaining an e-bike, the bill never reached the final draft of the climate-focused Inflation Reduction Act. It was removed in order to garner majority support to pass the bill.
This second proposal would cover 30% of the cost of a new e-bike of $8,000 or less, for a credit of up to $1,500. For low-income families, the tax credit is also fully refundable.
“Although we’re seeing more people on them in our communities, more needs to be done to ensure that everybody across our country has access to an e-bike. With its fully refundable tax incentives for those in the lower economic levels, the E-BIKE Act is a commonsense way to encourage the ownership of e-bikes. By incentivizing Americans to own and use e-bikes, we are allowing them the chance to help improve the quality of life in our communities and tackle the climate crisis in our country,” said Congressman Panetta, who helped to reintroduce the bill.
The E-BIKE Act was reintroduced the same day as the safety bill (opens in new tab), which would unlock federal funds to support state and local government efforts to build safer, more complete networks for bicycling and walking.
Named after a State Department employee who was killed (opens in new tab)while riding her bicycle last August, the Sarah…