Through various new initiatives, the city of Boston is encouraging residents to get on their bikes. Mayor Michelle Wu launched a pilot initiative this week that will provide discount vouchers to eligible residents so they can buy their own e-bikes.
The average cost of an e-bike is somewhere between $2,000 and $3,000, which makes it out of reach for many Bostonians already struggling with the high cost of housing. The Boston E-Bikes Incentive Program aims to reduce those costs and make the environmentally conscious ride a viable option for everybody who wants one.
Jascha Franklin-Hodge, Boston’s chief of streets, joined GBH’s All Things Considered guest host Judie Yuill to share more about the initiative and other programs that encourage residents to strap on their helmets. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.
Judie Yuill: Could you give us a few more details about the new program? How much are the discount vouchers, and who’s eligible for them?
Jascha Franklin-Hodge: Yeah, sure. So the vouchers range in value, depending upon the circumstances and the type of bike, but they range from $800 to $2,400. The eligibility is for what we call “income-eligible adults,” so people who make 40% or less of the median income, seniors over the age of 60 and any adult with a chronic or permanent disability.
Yuill: Now, the money for this program is from the American Rescue Plan Act, the federal pandemic relief aid legislation. Why was this program to get more people on bikes a priority for those funds?
Franklin-Hodge: Sure. You know, we have a number of projects in the transportation space that are being supported through the ARPA program. But really, we’re looking at all the ways that we can help improve mobility — especially for communities that were most affected by COVID — and to really make sure that we’re aligning the investments that we make with this transformational program with the long-term goals that we have to become a more sustainable, equitable and mobile city.
Yuill: Are people with chronic disabilities who need adaptive e-bikes also eligible for the vouchers?
Franklin-Hodge: They are — and they’re eligible for a higher dollar amount. We want to make sure that this program works for as many people as it can. We know that people with disabilities sometimes have unique or specialized needs when it comes to their mobility, so we’ve structured the program to provide a lot of flexibility for folks with a disability to be able to find the kind of equipment that works for them and is a good fit for their body and their needs.
Yuill: Now, one of the things that’s interesting about this initiative is that it seems to imply that it’s getting people to think differently about e-bikes, how useful they are, how long they can spend on them, or what they can do. Is that true?
Franklin-Hodge: Yeah, we’ve seen that a lot. So, e-bikes tend to be accessible to a lot of folks who don’t feel like they can ride a pedal bike — especially older folks or some people with a disability. We also know that the majority of the trips that we take in the Boston region are three miles or less, and that’s a perfect distance to do on an electric bike, or even a pedal bike.
We’re really trying to make e-bikes more available to folks so that they see this as an option. It’s not going to work for everyone on every trip, but for many people, e-bikes kind of open up the world of biking where they might not otherwise be able to.
I’ll say, as a parent, I spend a lot of time moving kids around, and I take my two boys to school every day on the back of an e-bike. That’s not something I’d do if I had to pedal them myself, but having that motor just makes that possible now on a bike.
Yuill: There’s also a new campaign to encourage people to use Bluebikes. Is Bluebike ridership down?
Franklin-Hodge: No, Bluebike ridership this year is up significantly. We launched e-bikes into the system at the beginning of the year — there are about 750 e-bikes in the system — and they have delivered more than half a million rides just in the first six months of the year. We’re seeing incredible popularity.
The e-bikes in June averaged more than eight rides a day, which is almost double the number of rides from our traditional bikes. We’re just seeing tremendous uptake around the system. You know, they just make it a little faster, a little less sweaty and a little easier to go longer distances on the Bluebike system.
Yuill: Can you tell us more about the campaign to get people using Bluebikes, how it works and how much it costs?
Franklin-Hodge: Yeah, absolutely. E-bikes in the Bluebike system are available to anyone who uses a Bluebike. There is an extra charge if you are using an electric bike — of 10 cents per minute for regular members and 7 cents for income-eligible members.
We also recently launched the Boston Pass, which lowers the cost of membership in the Bluebike system for Boston residents. Income-eligible members can get an annual membership for just five dollars a year, and for everybody else, the first year of membership is only $60.
We’re really trying to make it easy for people in Boston to try Bluebikes — whether they want a traditional pedal bike or an electric bike — and have affordable access to this form of transportation.
