I hope you enjoyed Opa Fiets and the E-Transport Revolution as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it.
Whether you call it E-Transport, micromobility, or e-biking, the rise of simple electric vehicles of all sorts are changing American cities, sometimes against their will. Every month there are more e-bikes, cargo bikes, and scooters on our streets. Every week there are activists demanding new regulations, new cement is being poured, and new paint going on roadways, to accommodate the change.
It’s not a one-way street. There are millions of angry car heads who complain e-bikes aren’t following the law any better than they are. There are forces in Washington desperate to stop the spread of e-biking infrastructure. We also see efforts in state capitols to make e-bikers buy government licenses and insurance in the name of “public safety.”
In Opa Fiets, I addressed many of these issues, offering simple proposals. We need a third path through our cities, a speed limit of 15-20 mph. We need to control speeds at the manufacturer level, with standards.
It’s a problem. E-Transport manufacturers are accelerating their efforts to produce faster e-motos, at lower prices, creating thousands of reckless teens who say they’re on e-bikes, without helmets, heedless of laws that may or may not exist. This has led to a “bikelash” against all e-bikes, with some cities outlawing them entirely.
Opa Fiets Across America
But the genie won’t be put back in the bottle. For millions of people an e-bike is an affordable and attractive option for city living. There are millions for whom it’s the only transportation option.
The result will be quieter, sweeter smelling cities. We see this already. City air is now cleaner than suburban air in many urban areas. Businesses can now locate more customers outside, expanding their own footprints, increasing their sales.
My job, and I mean to make it a job, is to document this change. It’s the biggest change to our cities in 100 years, since the automobile. It’s the biggest challenge to urban design since cars replaced cities with cul de sacs where you must drive 5 miles to visit your neighbor over the back fence.
As a reporter, I want to research what’s happening all around the U.S., first interviewing experts on best practices, and collecting statistics on the changes as they happen. Then I wish to visit cities where the changes, and the bikelash, are most pronounced. I hope to bring my Edison with me, either on a new hitch trailer or, perhaps, inside a car that can hold it.
The Challenge
I will need help. I’m not a videographer. That means I must either learn to be one or find someone to accompany me on the journey. So much of what’s happening is visual, and aural, that the story won’t be clear in any other way.
It means this may be a technology story as well as a lifestyle story and a story of social change. That’s what happened with the original Opa Fiets book. What started as a “coming of old age” story turned into a travelogue, then a product overview, then a policy tract. It’s a good start but I didn’t do the subject justice.
That’s what my 2026 will be all about. I hope you’ll join me. The adventure of reporting doesn’t end when the reporter leaves the job. It just seeks a new beat.
