I was fortunate to join Atlanta’s ride in honor of Todd Pretti over the weekend.
I only rode part of the route. My e-bike had suffered a failure overnight and I needed to get it into the shop. But what I found was that most of my fellow riders, about 300 of them, were riding road bikes like my old Romic.
This matched my findings from last year. Almost everyone I saw honoring the late Ken Rosskopf was wearing spandex and riding a standard bicycle. The exceptions were mainly oldsters like me (and Ken, now riding his e-bike in the sky), using electricity as a concession to age. It’s clear to me cyclists are more active than e-bikers on issues involving cycling.
While it was gratifying to see so many of my fellow cyclists, it was also a bit troubling. That’s because it’s the E-Transport Revolution that’s driving the rise of bike infrastructure. E-bikes, cargo bikes, trikes, scooters, and (yes, even) e-motorbikes replace cars in our driveways and on our roads. They eliminate the need for more lanes, they reduce the cost of maintenance, and they change our daily relationship to the environment we travel through.
All these benefits exist without motors, but most people don’t cycle and never will. I’ve been riding Atlanta’s hills for over 40 years, and while I learned to handle the work and the danger, it was mostly a hobby for me.
I didn’t learn the benefits of stopping, of shopping or eating, of working or visiting a doctor, and of then riding home before I got my e-bike. I wasn’t dressed appropriately for stopping, the weight of my groceries was a deterrent, and it was hard to get going again.
Activating E-Bikers
Cyclists are not looking down on e-bikers. That’s not the case. It’s more that they come to the road with a different mindset.
Bicycle commuters know they need two sets of clothes and a place to shower before entering the job site. An e-biker will come as they are. A cyclist dedicates an enormous amount of their psychic energy, as well as their physical fitness, to the ride. An e-biker may just be taking her kids to school.
In short, a cyclist cares about the ride, an e-biker the destination, and it’s the rising number of e-bikers that are causing cities to improve their infrastructure, and slow down cars. A cyclist will fight for that infrastructure, but once it’s built the improvements will mostly go to e-bikes, because the improvements will cause people to buy e-bikes, cargo bikes, e-trikes, or scooters. A cyclist fights for safety, while an e-biker expects it as a predicate for their going out on two wheels.
In Atlanta, groups like Propel ATL are focused on the e-biker goal of getting around, but with a broad mandate. They want more sidewalks, they want more transit, they want more safety. They also work around detailed designs, lobbying, and organizing. For them, cyclists are just one constituency.
E-bikes are their own constituency. E-Transport doesn’t need bike paths so much as safe routes. We’re not usually the e-bike on our cars at the end of the trail. It does no good for an e-biker to see a beautiful bike intersection but find they can’t get to it because they’re competing with cars on the rest of the road.
AAA For E-Bikes
I’m not going to moan on this blog without offering an idea.
So, here’s an idea.
What E-Transport needs is something like the Automobile Association of America (AAA). AAA was founded over 120 years ago, advocating for better roads and safer driving. Over time they created a host of useful services that brought in cash and built a business model. It’s the business model that has kept them alive in the 21st century.
E-Transport advocacy needs a business model. If AAA wanted to expand in that direction it would be great. Don’t hold your breath. The missions, on the surface, appear contradictory and competitive.
They’re not. We can see this in the e-bike backlash. Governments are going to spend this year trying to control the e-motorbike storm. Their actions threaten to stop the E-Transport Revolution in its tracks. But it’s also an opportunity, because e-bikers want safety first and some might use the services of an e-bike AAA.
The elements of a business are there. What we need are people with time and money to make it happen. What we need are leaders, both political and entrepreneurial, something I’m told America has in abundance.
It can start with groups such as Propel, joining with other groups to provide services, or it can start, as AAA did, with a merger among state organizations. Regardless of how it starts, 2026 is the year to start it.
