E-Bikes could cut carbon, congestion, and costs — if cities take them seriously. Grist Matt Simon, Sophie Hurwitz 10 Nov 2025 Last year, San Francisco voters did something exceedingly rare in car-crazy America: They closed two miles of a coastal highway to vehicles, creating a sprawling park for pedestrians, joggers, and cyclists. Of course, furious residents in the neighborhood bordering the erstwhile highway voted last month to recall their representative at City Hall for championing the transformation and, to their minds, creating a traffic nightmare on side streets — even though commute times in the area have grown by just a few minutes since the closure.The battle in the City by the Bay is emblematic of the inflection point facing cities nationally. As more electric vehicles hit the road, the temptation is to invest heavily in the infrastructure — roads, highways, parking lots — that will preserve the status quo of prioritizing cars over people.
Meanwhile, the e-bike market is skyrocketing — and, according to some studies, outpacing electric cars — providing an even more environmentally friendly travel option. The question now is: Do officials double down on deadly car-centric urban design, or do they rethink cities to encourage people to ditch four wheels for two? Cities and states throughout the country are taking steps to make existing infrastructure more accommodating to those who prefer to pedal. They are lowering vehicle speed limits, building designated bike lanes, providing charging, and ensuring underserved neighborhoods don’t get left behind. All of this has been a big change in just the past few years, given that some locales didn’t regulate e-bikes at all until the late 2010s, said Leigh Ann Von Hagen, director of the Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University. “All states have seen the writing on the wall,” she said. The promise of the e-bike is that it can help people of every age. Parents are carting children around on beefy models with built-in bins. Workers can use them to get to and from their jobs. Shoppers can slap saddle bags over the rear fender to haul groceries. And elderly folks, who may not be confident in their ability to operate a conventional pedaller, can use them in lieu of driving. “I have an uncle in Tennessee who started riding an e-bike when he retired because he just didn’t want to drive to the store anymore,” Von Hagen said.
In addition to that lowering of carbon emissions — how much exactly will depend on the city and the rate of e-bike adoption, but the drop may be somewhere around 12 percent — there’s also the harder-to-quantify health benefits of people exercising more. Plus, fewer cars spewing pollution improves air quality and public health. EVs, too, release their own form of pollution: Because they’re heavier than combustion cars, their tires produce more microplastics — though their brakes produce much less dust — that sully the air and wash out to sea. Drivers may experience range anxiety about their electric vehicle not having the juice to reach their destination, but the opposite is true for e-bikers. Older people or those with medical conditions might avoid conventional cycling because they worry about having the energy to make it somewhere, especially if there are hills in their way. With e-bike ranges far exceeding the average distance that riders are traveling (around 6 miles), range anxiety can be higher for those providing their own pedalling power. “When we do interviews with people, they will use the e-bike on eco, or even off, when they’re on flat terrain, and as soon as they get to that hill, they consistently report putting it up to the maximum,” said Jessica Bourne, an active travel researcher at the University of Bristol in the UK. “As one participant described it: It’s just flattening their journey.
”You can see the potential for e-bikes to replace cars in how their riders compare to those on conventional bikes. Given that e-bike users have the option to let the motor do all the work, you might assume that they’re burning fewer calories. But research has shown that riders tend to travel significantly farther on e-bikes, meaning they’re getting about as much physical activity as those taking shorter trips on conventional bikes. Put another way: It’s less exertion, but more time spent exercising and running errands. “Once you account for increased frequency and increased duration and distance traveled, they spend longer on the bike overall, so they’re actually expending more energy on a weekly basis,” Bourne said. “That’s why they have more potential to substitute for motorized vehicles.” read on
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And then there's METRO VANCOUVER...... Metro Vancouver has had regional bike routes in development for over a century, beginning with the Stanley Park Seawall in the late 1800s and continuing with the BC Parkway for Expo 86, a major milestone in the late 20th century. The Metro Vancouver Regional Greenway Vision in 1999 formalized a network, and TransLink began developing its Major Bikeway Network (MBN) concept in 2011, with significant expansions and continued updates under strategies like Transport 2050.
Early Development.....
Late 1800s/Early 1900s:
The region's history of greenway planning began with the construction of the Stanley Park Seawall, a very early and long-standing cycling path.
1986:
The BC Parkway, a significant multi-community bikeway, opened for Expo 86, marking a major step forward for regional connectivity.
Formalization of Networks......-
1990s:A broader regional interest in greenways led to a series of planning initiatives, culminating in the adoption of the Greater Vancouver Regional Greenway Vision in 1999.
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2011:TransLink launched its Regional Cycling Strategy, which included the initial concept for the Major Bikeway Network (MBN).
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2009:The MBN was established as a baseline, with 1,700 kilometers of bikeway in the region.
Significant Growth and Expansion.....
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2010s:The bike network experienced substantial growth, with the total length nearly tripling by 2019, reaching 4,595 kilometers.
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2018 & 2022:The MBN was expanded further, reflecting TransLink's updated strategies like Transport 2050.
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Present:The development of the MBN continues under Transport 2050, focusing on creating a complete network of traffic-protected bikeways connecting urban centers for comfortable, active transportation.