The Good News
Alameda’s e-bike rebate pilot through Alameda Municipal Power (AMP) has been pretty successful. According to a recent City Staff presentation on our climate plan progress, in 2023, 116 rebates were issued for e-bikes. That’s nearly double the number of rebates issued for EVs.
The e-bike rebate program will continue.
The Bad News
The program has recently been scaled back to just $100 and, for income qualified, $300, removing the additional incentive for more expensive bikes. This is not much incentive at all for someone thinking about an e-cargo bike (which can be quite pricey) as a car replacement.
Here’s a summary of how the program has changed:
An AMP representative noted that a more generous countywide program (through AVA Community Energy) and a statewide program (through CARB) can “stack,” and supplement this reduced rebate amount. However, those programs have been stalled and are not available yet. The countywide program will be income-tiered; the statewide program will be limited to people with income at or below 300% of the federal poverty level.
The climate emergency has not gotten any less urgent. If our city is trying to incentivize utilitarian biking, which is among the most climate-friendly ways to get around, scaling back on this program right now doesn’t seem like the right move. We believe the more generous program should be reinstated at least until those other programs kick in. Learnings gleaned from the pilot should be used to modify and enhance the program, and keep the momentum going forward. It’s not clear to us what can change right now, but we’re trying to find out.
Separate but related is the City’s goal mentioned in the Staff presentation of 821 EV rebates by 2030, and our understanding that there is no comparable goal for e-bike rebates. Considering that biking is much greener than driving *any* kind of car, that 63% of all trips in Alameda are 3 miles or less (a perfect distance for biking), and that more people biking for trips rather than driving will have the bonus benefits of increased safety, reduced congestion, reduced parking pressure, reduced noise, etc, a specific goal around bike purchases would make a lot of sense, too.
Danielle Mieler, Alameda’s Sustainability and Resiliency Manager, recently said, “Our greenhouse gas strategy is really quite simple: we just need to electrify everything, and then walk, bike, and take transit as much as possible.”
Well said! Let’s ramp up the incentives and get rolling!