Atlanta will subsidize steep discounts on electric bicycles for city residents as part of a new program designed to cut down on traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions.
City Council voted on Monday to put $1 million into the program, which by this spring should allow Atlantans over 18 to walk into a partnering bike shop and get up to $2,000 off as an instant rebate.
“Once this first wave of dollars goes and I think we see how many folks are interested … I’m looking forward to refilling this bucket with more money to make this opportunity available to more residents,” said Council Member Matt Westmoreland, who helped spearhead the initiative over a year ago.
He also said the city was making progress on its backlog of unbuilt bike lanes and other safety infrastructure.
Is there information on the accident rates and injuries versus cars?
DB2
Do you mean when pedestrians are hit by cars vs. bicycles?
There is that, but I was thinking of the operators of the vehicles. In the past, people have noted that because of their size and mass, SUVs are safer for their drivers and more dangerous to others. It seems reasonable that the same would apply to cars/SUVs/trucks versus e-bikes.
DB2
I’ve seen cities where massive amount of bike-commuting (think like 50% of the traffic) co-exists peacefully with the cars. This would be Cambridge, England. But it requires that the car drivers be reasonable, attentive people. And here in America they don’t seem to be that. Which is sad. 
But also, the climate in Cambridge is a lot more friendly to riding a bike than it is in Atlanta. (or Austin, where I am from).
I live less than 5 miles from my office. But I don’t think I’d risk riding a bike there. I know how the drivers here drive.
How large an increase in the fire-fighting budget will there be, to cover the costs of specialized equipment, extra fire fighters, and appropriate training for the reasonably expected number of more electric battery fires? Don’t forget the loss of homes and businesses as a result…
For any group of drivers, even reasonable ones, there will be accidents. When they do occur being on an e-bike will not be, shall we say, optimal.
By the way, last year Paris voted to ban rental e-bikes.
The referendum was called in response to a rising number of people being injured and killed on e-scooters in the French capital…There was growing concern with the way some people were driving the scooters - weaving through traffic, dodging pedestrians on pavements, and getting up to speeds of 17mph (27km/h)…Privately-owned vehicles were not part of the vote…
Meanwhile, dumped scooters had also become a significant problem in Paris, with many being found in the city’s parks and squares.
A ban on parking the dockless scooters on pavements largely went unheeded despite the threat of a €35 fine.
DB2
No, they banned e-scooters, not e-bikes.
Since gas cars catch on fire at 20x the rate of electric vehicles, they’ll be able to cut fire-fighting budgets. Pretty sweet.
There may be a difference though in where the e-bikes are kept and charged. For example Yale has banned e-bikes from the universities residential areas.
Yale University announced earlier this week that students will not be allowed to store or even ride an e-bike or other “micro mobility device” (MMD) within the residential area of campus.
What is the difference between the two?
DB2
And this would be safer for the occupants too.
According to the article a large part of the money is being spent on bike friendly infrastructure. [ed. This is not in the article. I don’t know if it was in another article or about a different city. I am only leaving this post up because it has received comments. Sorry for the confusion.]
Can’t say as I ever had a scooter, and I don’t remember anyone who did.
DB2
I missed that. Could you provide a quote?
But very hard on the infrastructure. 
DB2
I can’t provide a quote. My claim that some of the money was for infrastructure was not in the article. I must have read that in another article about some other city. Sorry for the mistake.
And as for the tank, if you have a tank, do you need infrastructure?
Well, sure. You’ll still be sharing the road and bridges with cars and e-bikes.
DB2
“I live less than 5 miles from my office. But I don’t think I’d risk riding a bike there. I know how the drivers here drive”
I used to road bike ( pedal ) all over the region, 80-100 mile rides, not uncommon. But I was noticing while driving my own vehicle that there were a lot of drivers on the road with their heads buried in their phones. There were cyclist’s getting maimed or killed by distractive drivers, so I decided the vast majority of pedaling would be in the woods on trails. Not worth the risk to be out on the road too much, although I do make a couple of scenic tour rides every year, but am very aware of the risk that entails. Fact of the matter is that Americans are too selfish to put their phones away while behind the wheel, screw everybody else. So Atlantans need to weigh the odds very carefully, as some of the e-bike riders will certainly be killed on the road.
That certainly helps with the danger aspect of biking in America. I will point out, however, that I don’t remember much of any “biking infrastructure” in Cambridge, and that didn’t stop half the people from commuting by bike, or in large numbers of them being killed or maimed by cars.
Maybe if we had large numbers of bike commuters here the driver mindset would have to change in order to deal with that. I dunno. But even if that were true, the transition to that would be… problematic.
Visit Amsterdam and see!
david fb