E-Bikes: Your Views Needed...

E-Bikes. Your views needed:The Cambridge Community Development Department (CDD) has contacted an occupational therapist Ph.D. candidate and fitness worker to undertake a survey of Cambridge residents with regard to e-bike interest. We hope you will take this 5-minute survey. Here is the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ebike22. Why is this important? Because, it seems, the City (CDD) may want to use the outcomes, as noted on the survey itself “…to see if e-bikes are a viable alternative to using cars for transportation needs.” (see language in accompanying letter below). Seriously? And, to make matters worse, this is not a viable survey format but instead a “puff piece” seemingly intended to convince you of why e-bikes are so important as an alternative to other vehicles here. The tone is:  Wouldn’t you like to just try one? If not, why not?  The normative answer is framed is “yes!” With enough “yes” votes in the survey conceivably this could be used to justify removing more parking along our streets and equally bad, not to require commercial or residential developers to create parking for new projects even if they are bringing hundreds of new people into the city. Note: the city is NOT looking to add more public transport, and that is a key problem.

There are a number of positive things about e-bikes and while e-bike popularity has grown in recent years, particularly among the 30–40-year-old group, there are a number of problems not addressed in the survey with respect to e-bikes that are important to signal (largely left out of the city’s survey). In addition to price, there is the battery (short lifespan and long charging time), low distances traveled before one needs to charge the battery, bike weight, costliness of repairs/maintenance, low resale value, and relatively little positive environmental benefits. See HERE. . In addition, with more e-bikes in play, pedal bicyclists and e-bike users are likely to themselves have problems competing for space in the City’s new bike lanes. And since no one is required to be licensed or to wear helmets or to carry insurance we will see even more frustration than we are seeing now.
 
Equally importantly e-bikes are sometimes unsafe, increase congestion, and indirectly pollute the environment through increased power plant emissions, batteries etc.). Moreover, simply replacing cars with e-bikes is not enough to impact climate change to any sizable degree: see HERE. As to e-bike weight -this can run from 32-70 lbs. (with most weighing over 50 pounds). It is hard to see many people able to haul one up a three-story height to the top floor of a triple decker.
 
The biggest problems, however, remains safety.
E-bikes can go 28 MPH (faster than cars are allowed to travel on Cambridge city streets) and e-bikes have posed serious safety challenges. Indeed  17 e-bike riders were killed in NYC in 2021 and 3 pedestrians were killed by 3-bike riders, according to a October 12, 2021 New York Times article. And this does not include broken limbs, internal injuries,  and other health issues.  Indeed e-bike riders were far more likely to be hospitalized after accidents than either those riding scooters or traditional bike riders (2021 legal notice). Even bicycle safety advocates note that

• E-bike riders are more likely to suffer from internal injuries
• E-bike riding injuries are three times more likely to involve a crash with a pedestrian
• E-bikes riders are more likely to suffer from concussions

Indeed, “e-bike accident victims have a 17% risk of internal injury. Pedal-bike accident victims, on the other hand, have a 7.5% risk of the same type of injury.” As noted in a 2019 Reuters article titled E-bikes Show Distinct Pattern of Severe Injuries: “E-bike injuries were also more than three times as likely to involve a collision with a pedestrian than either scooter or traditional bike injuries.” The study which cites an injury research program in the division of trauma and surgical critical care found “injuries from e-bikes in particular were more serious….[and] “17% of e-bike accident victims suffered internal injuries compared to about 7.5% for both powered scooters and pedal bikes.” Specifically, “The rate of pelvic injuries in E-bike accidents was twice as high compared with bicycle accidents” [upper extremity injuries were higher following bicycle accidents] …and had a higher incidence of moderate traumatic brain injuries than patients with bicycle accidents, in spite of the fact that E-bike riders were nearly twice as likely to wear a helmet as compared to bicycle riders. And because E-bike riders are on average 14 years older than bicycle riders (age 60 versus 40) this may mean that injuries take longer to heal. See HERE and HERE.
Conclusions:  While 7% of Cambridge residents currently ride bikes to work (with the numbers in some neighborhood far surpassing those in others (Harvard Square vs Fresh Pond for example) and while 25% of Cambridge residents already walk to work, promoting E-bike acquisition and use by the City does not seem wise, particularly when a survey such as this one seems to be encouraging people to take up e-biking without pointing out the serious health and other risk down sides. It seems in this light somewhat strange that the occupational therapist intern who put this “survey” together does not point out the injury down sides, because it is the OT group who is involved in much of the rehabilitation work for e-bike accidents and others.
While CCC has not been in the bike lane discussions for the most part, pedal bikes are very different from e-bikes. If the City thinks that the “hum” of a motor is going to convince residents to sell their cars (to use an e-bike (if they are not already using pedal bikes) should be encouraged to think more thoughtfully about this.
Please fill out the above survey – and be frank about what your and our transportation needs really are.