A few weeks after starting my Opafiets Substack, I wrote a piece about e-bikers wanting Routes, not just Paths.
Cyclists, who see bicycling as recreation, want paths like the Silver Comet. You drive out there, you park, you get on your bike, you ride around a while, and then you put the bike back on your car and drive home. I have done this, and it’s fun. It’s a great way to spend a weekend afternoon. I recommend it.
But E-Transport isn’t just about cycling. It’s about getting around. It’s TRANSPORT. We don’t just want paths separated from the world where designers can get away with it. E-bikes need routes between where we are and where we’re going, routes that work wherever here and there happen to be.
We don’t have them today, anywhere in America. Bike infrastructure today is about where car infrastructure was in 1910, before Ford’s Model T made driving into something everyone did routinely. There were some paved roads in major cities back then, but most transportation infrastructure was still aimed at the horse. A lot of those roads were dirt to cut the stink horses are heir to. Most places had no roads at all.
Had you drawn a map of the paved asphalt or cement roads in what’s now the Atlanta metro, the map would be mostly empty. (There was an Atlanta Beltline, but it was a railroad.) The point is that cars were toys for the wealthy or a tool for a well-capitalized delivery business.
They were cycling.
Build a Map
Today my FitBit watch told me I needed exercise. I also needed groceries. Without a bike it would be a half-hour trapped in a car, getting zero exercise. With a bike like my old Romic it would be a half-hour getting ready, an hour getting there and back, and a half-hour showering later, all while getting stared at for my Spandex clothes and clicking shoes. An all-day affair.
On my e-bike the trip took 45 minutes, and I got just the exercise I needed.
This was possible because there are shared streets in my neighborhood where cars usually drive at under 20 mph (32 kph). I can avoid them and feel safe. These aren’t “paths.” If cars are parked on either side, it’s one lane for travel. Cars go slowly enough for me to be safe.
What bike advocates need is a map, showing every safe route in and around their city. It would be something advocates can use to demand change. Paths where they exist, but also shared streets. Show everywhere e-bikes ride. Color-code it, each roadway and path used by e-bikes given a color:
- A safe GREEN path with no road near it.
- A shared YELLOW street with slow moving car traffic and parking
- A RED street with a bike path, a three or four lane road physically separated from the car traffic by cement obstructions
- A BROWN street, with a path for bikes marked out by paint, and a speed limit of 30-35 mph
- A BLACK four-lane road with a turning lane, a “stroad” where you take your life in your hands. Also give the BLACK rating to a two-lane crowned roadway with no separate e-bike path.
What This Does
These maps can be digitally updated, printed on demand. Optimally, these maps should be integrated into software like Ride with GPS, so people know beforehand what they will face before they travel. It should be available to the nascent e-bike travel industry, to help people pick out safe inter-city routes, finding hotels and restaurants along the way. Police agencies will know where they’re likely to see e-bikes, and where they’re likely to see accidents in their towns if more isn’t done.
Where Carheads successfully demand e-bikes get licenses and insurance, a AAA for e-bikes can use these maps to fight back, and to evaluate risks for insurers and riders. Without data, e-bikers are going to be rolled back, and e-biking will become, once again, a form of Russian Roulette for a few brave souls like me, who are stupid enough not to be in a gas guzzler.
