E-bikes are fun, but do they still offer exercise? We surveyed the available data to find out.

There’s no question that electric bikes are soaring in popularity, or that sales will continue to rise (especially as gas prices do, too). The one demographic that seems more hesitant to embrace the e-bike boom, however, is avid cyclists and other fitness enthusiasts. To those more drawn to “type II fun,” an e-bike — with its pedal-powered battery offering riders a boost — can feel like cheating, a way around hard climbs and the stamina required for a traditional 20-mile ride. 

But the beauty of e-bikes lies in the fact that they’re more inclusive, allowing people of all ages and fitness levels to enjoy bicycling. While more expensive than your average bike, there is a slew of electric bicycle incentive programs aimed at low-income individuals, a growing list of e-bike lending libraries and an increasing number of bike share systems going all-electric. Plus, because of the ease associated with using them, electric bikes are also more likely to replace car trips (a recent study found car owners who also own an e-bike used the bike to replace about half the miles they usually traveled by car). 

People love e-bikes for the very reason their detractors don’t: the bike's motor and rechargeable battery carry the brunt of the hard work. 

According to Chris Cherry, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Tennessee who studies e-bike use, a battery-powered bike can help bridge the gap and bring non-cyclists into the fold. “The most powerful thing that e-bikes do is that they take the most painful parts of bike riding away,” said Cherry. “Either the climb or the duration — the stuff that keeps people from starting.”

Because electric bikes are less physically demanding on joints and muscles, they not only bring in riders who might otherwise be inactive, but they also offer the opportunity for people to ride longer periods of time and go greater distances. That leads to more folks using e-bikes as an option for commuting or running errands. Although users won’t find themselves doing the sort of vigorous physical activity uphill mountain biking or even hot yoga entails, e-bike use has been shown to deliver the sort of moderate physical activity most doctors recommend. 

While Cherry isn’t an exercise scientist, he did partner with several on a 2017 study that found e-bikes provide moderate physical activity on flat segments and downhill segments and vigorous physical activity on uphill segments. Notably, that same study found that compared to traditional bikes and walking, e-bikes lower a person’s need to shower after riding, allow riders to dress appropriately for the weather, require less exertion and elicit higher levels of enjoyment.

“If you’re only using your bike when you feel energized versus all the time — as e-bike users tend to — then you’re not doing yourself any favors,” said Cherry. “Research says people ride e-bikes more often and farther, so they get more physical activity, even though it’s less intense.”

A 2019 study found that e-bikes can provide intense exercise, it just doesn’t feel like a workout. Another 2021 study came to roughly the same conclusion: Electric bicycling can definitely count as exercise. Those researchers, who compared the physiological effects of e-bikes and standard road bikes during a simulated commute, determined that the e-bike riders elevated their breathing and heart rates enough to count as a meaningful workout. However, those health benefits varied from person to person.

When on a Class 2 e-bike — which includes a throttle and a max speed of 20 miles per hour — a person could theoretically not pedal at all, burning through their battery power using it like a motorcycle. Obviously, to obtain a health benefit, one has to actually pedal the bike. Similarly, if you’re always using the maximum amount of pedal assist, you’ll get less exercise than someone who’s more conservative. In the 2021 study, some participants that used the highest level of pedal assistance were found to get moderate exercise while others’ heart rate response was too mild to count (rider height and weight can also play an important role in the number of calories burned). 

Across the board, the e-bike users burned about 30% fewer calories than those on road bikes but as with the participants in Cherry’s study, they reported having more fun. Other studies echo this sentiment, with many driving home the point that when bicycling is made easier and more enjoyable, courtesy of pedal assist, it’s more likely to become a part of people’s everyday lifestyle. 

While the mental health benefits of e-biking are harder to quantify, there is something to be said for a form of transportation that provides joy, allowing more people to better connect to the places they live. There’s plenty of research that points to the mental health benefits of spending time outdoors, including one 2019 study that links 120 minutes spent outside per week with elevated levels of health and well-being. Plus, physical activity in general has been shown to improve sleep, mood and cognitive functioning, as well as decrease stress and ease depression and anxiety.

Based on such research, Canadian doctors can now prescribe national park visits to patients. Anna Wassman, the business development manager at Bosch eBike Systems — which manufactures e-bike batteries, motors and displays for more than 70 brands globally — hopes to someday get to the point where doctors might also be able to prescribe e-bikes. In tandem with Cherry and others, Wassman is working to develop a long-term, large-scale scientific medical study to fill a current gap in the research. While it’s still in the conceptual stages, for there to be any sort of medical intervention, longitudinal evidence is needed.

“The adoption of e-bikes as the go-to health and wellness tool for the medical community — that’s the dream goal,” said Wassman. To help achieve that dream, Bosch believes insurance companies, benefits brokers and employers have a large role to play. “It’s lots of little pieces that all tie together to create a better world. We need to help people get there.”

For older adults, whose immune systems benefit from exercise, as well as folks with pre-existing conditions or joint pain, e-bikes are a low-impact way to stay healthy. Research also shows that outdoor e-bike exercise can help stroke, spinal cord injury survivors, Multiple Sclerosis patients, and people born with motor function disorders — as well as people recovering from more everyday injuries. Again, they’re also expensive. Since socioeconomic status is a known indicator of things like hypertension, heart disease, obesity and respiratory issues, e-bikes remain out of reach for many who would benefit most from their use.

In 2021, Biketown, the all-electric bike share system in Portland, Oregon, launched a prescribe-a-bike program to both increase access to e-bikes and improve public health. In partnership with the Multnomah County Health Department, Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) Program and its student health centers, the two-year pilot is offering prescriptions for bike share for clinic patients and 16 and 17-year-old high school students. All prescriptions come with a free bike share membership, helmet and educational support.

According to Roshin Kurian, transportation demand management specialist at the Portland Bureau of Transportation, which manages Biketown, the clinic and student populations live in the same zip codes, one of the best-known indicators of poor health outcomes. “These are underserved communities that are more low income than the rest of the city and more ethnically diverse,” said Kurian. 

Thus far, the prescribe-a-bike program has 58 participants, all of whom agreed to have their ridership data tracked and to submit health surveys. Although prescribe-a-bike programs aren’t new — Boston, Massachusetts, and Brooklyn, New York, have their own, and the U.K. announced a nationwide initiative in July 2021 — they are rare, and haven’t traditionally involved electric pedal-assist bikes. Kurian believes that Biketown’s all-electric fleet helped not only secure the initial buy-in from participants but will ensure that folks ride more often.  

“Once you get on an e-bike and you feel that pedal-assist and you're able to go up the hill, you're able to go further and that builds confidence,” said Kurian. “It’s a gateway drug to more activity and to better behavioral changes around your health.”

For children aged 6 through 17, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends 60 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity each day. For adults, it’s 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity (and two days of muscle-strengthening activity) each week. Biketown’s prescriptions are in line with these guidelines, although Kurian acknowledges that for many folks, it can seem like a lot.

“It's a recommendation, so anything that we hit near that is great,” said Kurian. “It’s also probably more realistic if you’re using an e-bike.”

By focusing on youth and clinic patients with preexisting conditions, the study will showcase how electric bikes might work as both a preventative and curative intervention. The larger public health savings brought on by a large-scale shift to e-bikes is harder to quantify. According to a 2021 study conducted by epidemiological researchers at Colorado State University, bike share alone saves the U.S. $36 million in public health dollars every year. Researchers also found that bike share trips in the U.S. provide health benefits for bicyclists and those health benefits are greater than the risks, such as air pollution or injury from cars. 

Bike share systems that go electric consistently bring in more users — in 2019, when the Madison BCycle fleet in Madison, Wisconsin, went electric, usage more than doubled, and in New York City, electric-assist Citi Bikes see more than twice as many rides per day than traditional bikes. It follows that the more electric bikes there are on our streets, whatever the source, the larger the collective public health benefit. The more e-bikes swell in popularity, the more likely they are to play a role in helping reshape our streets to be more walkable and bikeable — which comes with health savings of their own. 

A widespread mode shift would also reduce emissions while redesigning our streets for bikes can help lower road fatalities all around. And if a future full of electric bicycles seems far-fetched, consider this: In Europe, e-bikes are projected to outsell cars — all cars, not just electric ones — by the middle of the decade. In the U.S., e-bike sales are outpacing electric car sales and are tracking towards 1 million annually. 

Electric bikes are proven to have the ability to help individuals, and getting more individuals on e-bikes has the ability to help our communities and the planet at large. The more people bicycling, in whatever capacity, the better.

A new study found that installing road murals at intersections can cut down on crashes by a whopping 50%.

“Paint won’t save a life,” is a line popular with bicycle advocates and for good reason — a stripped lane does little to protect a bicyclist in the event of a vehicle collision. It’s the reason why we believe protected bike lanes should be the default for roadways with speed limits above 30 mph. A new study from Bloomberg Philanthropies, however, suggests that when deployed correctly, paint can in fact offer protection.

Researchers examined 17 diverse study sites, comparing Historial Crash Analysis data before and after the introduction of art projects, including intersection murals, crosswalk art, painted plazas or sidewalk extensions. Notably, none of these designs included any other built infrastructure improvements at the time they were painted. The study also took into account an Observational Behavior Assessment, which compared before and after video footage of motorist and pedestrian behavior at five U.S. locations with asphalt art projects installed in 2021 as part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Asphalt Art Initiative. 

Through analyzing crash data, the “Asphalt Art Safety Study” found significantly improved safety performance across a variety of measures after the installation of asphalt art:

50% decrease in the rate of crashes involving pedestrians or other vulnerable road users

37% decrease in the rate of crashes leading to injuries

Similarly, the observational assessment found the art installations resulted in:

25% decrease in pedestrian crossings involving a conflict with drivers

27% increase in the frequency of drivers immediately yielding to pedestrians with the right of way

38% decrease in pedestrians crossing against the walk signal

Artist Mensah Bey drew inspiration from West African symbolism for this Norfolk, VA, mural.

These findings confirm what many involved in such interventions anecdotally know to be true: Art-driven transportation projects can help improve safety for our most vulnerable road users, all while beautifying our communities. Despite broad public support, however, art in the public right of way has consistently faced hurdles at the regulatory level. In fact, the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), which dictates U.S. regulations when it comes to street markings and design, currently bans colorfully painted crosswalks due to questionable safety concerns. 

In Washington, D.C., transportation planners for the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) found a workaround to the draconian MUTCD guidelines through the beautification of bike racks, utility boxes, curb bump-outs and pedestrian zones. Launched in 2019, DDOT’s Arts in the Right-of-Way (AROW) program has developed a handful of art guides geared toward sharing out best practices and empowering residents to take an active role in creating more colorful neighborhoods. Not only have residents responded positively to the art but city officials believe they’ve made the streets safer for the most vulnerable road users among us.

A series of murals at three prominent intersections in the riverfront area of Saginaw, MI.

Much of the current pushback against asphalt art, however, is due to a fear that Automated Vehicle technology will fail to recognize pedestrians amidst all the colors and designs. This logic implies that technology should be the priority — in order to create spaces where folks feel comfortable walking and bicycling, we need to prioritize them, and not the machines that pollute our cities and kill Americans in large numbers every year (not to mention the accompanying highways that bisect our neighborhoods and do little to alleviate congestion). All of these issues disproportionately affect low-income and/or BIPOC communities, which bear the brunt of the physical and mental harm a car-centric culture has created.

Another criticism levied against asphalt art, albeit to a lesser extent, is the need to repaint it at regular intervals. Considering the relative affordability of paint though and the positive safety effects the Bloomberg study showcases, asphalt art is arguably one of the most affordable traffic interventions available. Plus — as the AROW program in Washington D.C. demonstrates — when done properly, creating and maintaining murals can become a community event. 

Volunteers help paint the design of local artist Candy Carver in Durham, NC.

To date, Bloomberg’s Asphalt Art Initiative has led to the installation of 42 separate street murals throughout the U.S., costing $25,000 each, which have brought joy alongside safer streets. In order to help other cities facilitate a more colorful transition, Bloomberg has developed an Asphalt Art Guide and is currently accepting grant applications from European cities. 

BikeWalkKC and Safe Routes to School released a new publication designed for advocates that want to repeal and modify unsafe, racialized traffic laws.

The murder of George Floyd was the straw that broke many an advocate's back — passionate people across the country utilized the mainstream attention the tragedy garnered to shine a light on the racialized enforcement of many American laws. In the mobility space, there was a renewed effort to critically examine traffic laws related to walking and bicycling that fail to meet their intended safety goals and instead disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC), as well as the unhoused and low-income communities. BikeWalkKC, alongside the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, recently released “Taking on Traffic Laws: A How-To Guide For Decriminalizing Mobility,” based on the organization’s experience reforming unjust laws locally. 

Since its founding, BikeWalkKC, based in Kansas City, Missouri, has centered equity in its work, lobbying for better infrastructure but also larger policy reform. In 2020, as Floyd’s murder sparked protests around the country, the Kansas City City Council adopted Resolution #200450, which directed city staff to review the full municipal code to identify elements of racist language as well as statutes that could disproportionately harm Black and brown residents. BikeWalkKC used the resolution as an opportunity to search for laws that could specifically be used to over-police BIPOC while walking or biking.

“We essentially identified three laws related to jaywalking, bike inspections and dirty wheels that needed to be modified or repealed,” said Michael Kelley, policy director at BikeWalkKC. “Over the course of the next few months, we were able to push for the introduction of legislation, build a coalition and ultimately, successfully advocate for those changes in May of 2021.”

In his new podcast, “Arrested Mobility,” researcher Charles T. Brown explores the adverse social, political, economic and health outcomes of over-policing BIPOC movement — whether on bikes, walking, running or driving — in the U.S. The first episode is all about jaywalking and showcases how while illegal in many places, jaywalking is inequitably enforced in areas with fewer sidewalks, signals and pedestrian crossing areas. Similarly, research shows that areas with less bike infrastructure experience disproportionate ticketing, compounding the effects of racially biased policing and transportation policies.

To showcase the inequitable enforcement of jaywalking laws in Kansas City specifically, BikeWalkKC obtained data from the municipal court (because the city doesn’t have local control over its police department, it’s incredibly difficult to secure arrest data). The data showed a definite racial bias in charges related to jaywalking: 65% of jaywalking tickets were given out to Black residents, even though they make up less than 30% of the city’s population. The other two laws identified as problematic pertained to dirty wheels, which made it illegal to drive a car, bike or other vehicle that deposited mud on city streets, and bike inspections, which allowed officers to stop someone biking if they believed the bike was in a state of disrepair. 

On paper, many bicycle laws — such as those for inspections or others that require people to wear helmets, use bike lights, obtain a bike license or register their bikes — seem like a great idea. After all, inspecting a bike that’s in poor shape might save someone from injury, helmets can protect our heads in the case of a crash, lights help bikers see and be seen, bike licenses can raise money for infrastructure and bike registrations safeguard people against theft. In reality, these laws are widely virtually unknown and rarely enforced. When they do get enforced, it’s usually to the detriment of BIPOC citizens or those experiencing homelessness.

Something like a bike inspection law can be used by police officers as a pretextual traffic stop, or the practice of using a minor traffic stop to investigate a more serious crime. These sorts of stops bring with them a myriad of risks: the disruption of a person’s daily affairs, policing for profit, overcriminalization of already marginalized groups and, in extreme scenarios, even policing killings. There is also evidence that a crime-fighting approach based on traffic stops is largely ineffective.

Importantly, bicycle laws and by association, pretextual stops, also gatekeep bicycling, ensuring that certain populations feel less safe traveling on two wheels, which hurts all of us working in the bike space. Suzanne Hogan is a community volunteer and shop coordinator at the 816 Bicycle Collective in Kansas City, a volunteer-run, DIY recycle bike shop that welcomes everyone and focuses on the empowerment and education of low-income bike commuters. 

“At the shop, one of the big things I hear all the time from our patrons is about bike lights — not having lights is an excuse for someone to get pulled over on their bikes,” said Hogan, noting that other stories she hears are a direct reaction to an unsafe urban bicycling environment. “I've heard many patrons say that they've been stopped by a police officer for violating a traffic law, like say riding on a sidewalk.”

All of this creates mental stress and anguish for these communities and a general feeling of being unsafe when trying to move around. While many of the incidents Hogan hears about aren’t codified in city law, they’re part of a larger culture that polices the mobility of lower-income individuals and BIPOC. Combatting arrested mobility requires a cultural approach (this includes shops like the 816 Collective, which helps build a more inclusive community) in addition to a policy approach, like the one taken by BikeWalkKC.

Following the organization’s success, calls began rolling in from advocates in places like Atlanta, and Denver, asking for advice on how they might recreate such wins in their cities. The guide for decriminalizing mobility was a response to inquiries and is broken up into three sections: The first being an explanation of how we have overpoliced traffic enforcement and how that disproportionately harms certain groups, the second detailing what BikeWalkKC did in Kansas City, and the third is a call to action, asking advocates to learn from what BikeWalkKC did and to apply it to their own communities.

“One of the big takeaways was the importance of building an effective and varied coalition,” said Kelley, noting that in addition to people from transportation, the Kansas City coalition included folks working in housing, livability and sustainability backgrounds. “Another big part is the importance of being willing and able to get the data and the stories earlier in order to help build and strengthen your case.”

Kelley adds that an important part of that story gathering is also guarding your own vulnerability — advocacy often requires people to explain and share parts of their own lived experiences that are difficult and that they are still sometimes working through. Even though advocacy work is important and requires us to use our voices, it’s important to practice self-care and limit the parts of ourselves we share.

“We wrote this guide for other advocates,” said Kelley. “If and when there are other communities that want to take these steps, here’s our detailed account of how you can get it done and do it better than us by avoiding the mistakes we made.”

Kelly and the other authors are also clear that this is a guide, not the guide for taking on traffic laws. Language and terminology will differ from place to place; someone might be looking at laws that are more expansive or more narrow depending on where you are. Even the way BikeWalkKC went through its municipal code searching for certain terms like “sidewalk” and “walking” might be replaced with “pedestrian path” or “crosswalk” elsewhere. Kelley is also adamant that it doesn’t have to be an organization or nonprofit leading the charge — a group of community members can make a difference.

“We want people to understand that there are multiple ways to do this work,” said Kelley. “We don't necessarily think that everyone has to do things the exact same way to get the same results. You can change things to better suit the nuances of the community you’re working in.”

The guide is itself an acknowledgment that the work doesn’t end in Kansas City. Even just outside of town, in Independence, Missouri, 37-year-old Justin Layton was tackled, tased, beaten and ultimately arrested by police in 2020 after being initially stopped for the crime of jaywalking. He’d like to see the entire Kansas City metro area decriminalize jaywalking — the authors of “Taking on Traffic Laws” are thinking even bigger.

“This is not something that just ends with Kansas City and it doesn't just end with BikeWalkKC,” said Kelley. “We want this guide to be a catalyst for similar changes across the country.” 

Check out “Taking on Traffic Laws: A How-To Guide for Decriminalizing Mobility,” from BikeWalkKC and the Safe Routes to School National Partnership. 

Are you or any groups you know of working locally to repeal unjust traffic laws related to bicycling? We’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line: kiran@peopleforbikes.org.

A How-To Guide for Decriminalizing Mobility

After breaking a leg skiing, this rider’s e-bike has been instrumental in aiding both her physical therapy and mental well-being. 

There’s a growing body of research on the myriad of health benefits that electric bicycles offer, from improved cardio to helping people keep riding as they age. They can even quicken the recovery time of some injuries, my latest included. 

In early January, I suffered a broken tibia and fibula in my right leg from a nasty fall while skiing. Two months after breaking my leg and undergoing surgery, I’m more comfortable riding my e-bike than walking to get around. 

As I heal, I’m using my e-bike as part of my physical therapy. Biking is a low-impact activity and the small electric boost makes the work of going uphill easier for anyone, especially if you have a Class 2 electric bike with a throttle. My leg muscles, atrophied while I relied on crutches and sat on the couch for six weeks, are slowly charging back up with every ride. I could not be more grateful I brought my e-bike home in 2021.

It’s been less than a month since I’ve put weight on my right leg, and I can already ride my e-bike to physical therapy appointments, for small errands, to see friends and get out to enjoy the spring sunshine. Walking is also getting easier because I’ve been biking, loosening stiff joints and building up muscle.

I’ve lived in Washington, D.C., for nearly eight years, all without a car. I’ve always relied on my bike, shared micromobility, walking and transit to navigate the city. Getting back to that level of independent mobility is priceless. I also recognize I’m incredibly lucky to both own an e-bike and have access to connected and protected bike infrastructure right outside my door, since my safety feels more important than ever knowing that a fall or a crash could further damage my leg and set my recovery back — if not worse. 

Most physical therapy appointments start with a warm up to get your muscles and body moving. Limping in, I’m asked to spend a few minutes on a stationary bicycle before pointing to my helmet to show I’ve already biked there. Therapists are often shocked until I explain I rode an e-bike, and after a few questions about it, we get right to work poking, stretching and strengthening my leg. 

I’m no stranger to PT: I’m a high-energy, low-skill athlete with a dramatic falling habit. I tried playing soccer in an adult recreation league in the fall of 2017 but tore my left ACL in the first game. I was back on Capital Bikeshare within weeks, opting for a slow roll to most destinations instead of walking since it was less strenuous and more efficient. 

In the summer of 2018, I hopped on a mountain bike for the first time and flipped over the handlebars, shattering my left collarbone (only seconds after watching my friend flip and break hers too). Though it took awhile to get back on a bike, I again relied on the comfort and ease of an upright bikeshare bike before hunching over the drop bars of my well-loved 1974 Schwinn Sprint. 

In the aftermath of these injuries, biking did more than provide me with a low-impact physical activity, though that was major for my body’s overall rehabilitation. It completely transformed my mood and my mental well-being, giving me agency over how and when I could move through my city and our natural world. With an e-bike, I’m back in the saddle sooner than previous injuries, cranking the motor up to turbo mode so I can gently work my leg back into action.

My last big bike ride before this most recent injury was my first century ride, 102 miles at El Tour De Tucson, in November. I was regularly biking 15-30 miles several mornings a week and spending weekends on the abundance of bike paths, scenic rides and gravel roads around D.C., Maryland and Virginia. I kept a clear divide between my e-bike and my road bike, even leveraging the difference to help convince skeptics. My e-bike is for utility only, like getting groceries, taking meetings across town or commuting to my grad program. My acoustic bike is for fun and exercise. 

In my recovery though, my e-bike is everything. It’s going to be a while longer before I’m back to my spandex-clad morning workout rides, but I’ll get there sooner thanks to my e-bike. 

I’m now meeting up with friends I didn’t regularly ride with on their commuters and hybrids, spending more time in conversation on our bikes, enjoying good weather and each others’ company. Check out my first joyride since breaking my leg! I plan to keep blurring this line even when my leg is in better shape. 

I considered myself an e-bike evangelist before I broke my leg, advocating for the E-BIKE Act and electric bicycle incentives with PeopleForBikes and in my personal life, talking about them to anyone and everyone who would listen. Now, I can’t imagine where my body and mind would be without my e-bike. 

A $1 million National Science Foundation grantee aims to bring safety in numbers to underserved bike commuters, creating communal art in the process.

Fabian Wagmister, an Argentinian-born artist and associate professor at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), didn’t consider himself much of a bicyclist until he turned 50. It was then that his wife, in an attempt to facilitate a healthier lifestyle, bought him a bike. Within a week, he’d decided to ride the 15 miles from his downtown home to the UCLA campus. That journey transformed the way he saw L.A., igniting a passion for traveling on two wheels. 

“The bicycle has been largely a rebirth for my body and my sensibilities towards the city,” said Wagmister, whose physical and emotional health has since improved. “I get on the bike and recover that sense of childhood to a degree. It’s made me a more playful, relaxed human being.”

Wagmister became a bike person and, in classic fashion, he soon wanted to convert others. In addition to bike commuting, he started taking his kids to school by bike and planning long bike tours. The bicycle became a tool for discovery and self-exploration, which led to Wagmister’s evolution as an artist. One 2017 project, “Bicicletas Blancas,” took place over six nights in Buenos Aires. From sunset to sunrise, Wagmister — decked out with sensors that measured things like location, heart rate, pedaling cadence and vibration, as well as microphones that captured sound — explored the city and his own emotions. As he biked, the data from each ride was processed algorithmically to control a light sculpture and interactive map.

“Everything I was experiencing was being transmitted live to an installation in an art gallery,” said Wagmister, who has a particular interest in combining technology and art in community-forward projects. The rides attracted other bikers and passersby, sparking connections and inspiring Wagmister to gift a bike to a stranger each night. “That is who I am — that’s the kind of art that I do and that I enjoy.”

In the years since, Wagmister has continued to create technology-based bike art, always inviting everyday riders to participate. He’s also taught other artists to design these types of artworks, cultivating a collective of bicycle artists that span the globe from Costa Rica to Switzerland. When the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced its Civic Innovation Challenge in 2021, Wagmister began dreaming up a new project that would focus on underserved communities in L.A., this time using art as a way to facilitate ‘bikepooling’ (like carpooling but for bike commuters). 

The Civic Innovation Challenge sought ready-to-implement projects that would offer better mobility options for neighborhoods that suffer from spatial mismatch, or inconsistency between low-income households and suitable job opportunities. Knowing that any mobility research project administered by an art professor would be a longshot, Wagmister recruited his friend and colleague, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Ph.D., an associate dean and well-respected professor of urban planning. For more than three decades, Loukaitou-Sideris has focused her work on city public spaces, examining how we might better design our parks and green spaces for people that have been neglected due to their race, gender, age, income and/or housing status. 

“When I was asked to participate, I was really excited,” said Loukaitou-Sideris. “We’re trying to make bicycling accessible to communities that have typically been marginalized in terms of mobility.”

In February 2021, Wagmister, Loukaitou-Sideris and Jeffrey Burke, an associate dean of research and technology at UCLA, secured an initial $50,000 NSF research grant. The team used the funding to partner with the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition and trusted community-based organizations in downtown L.A., including Los Angeles River State Park Partners and the Anahuak Youth Sports Association, which primarily serve historically-marginalized Latino and Chinese neighborhoods. Wagmister, by nature of where he lives in L.A. and his earlier art projects, already had deep ties to the area. Together, the team distributed and analyzed more than 700 surveys to better understand residents’ mobility habits and needs.

From that initial research phase, the Civic Bicycle Commuting (CiBiC) project began to take shape: The team would develop a user-friendly app that allows local commuters to join ‘bike-to-work flows,’ creating a safety-in-numbers effect as they chart routes across L.A., which would then be digitally translated into public art pieces. The same nonprofits that helped with the initial outreach would be tapped to support the project by subcontracting additional organizations, recruiting riders and disseminating more surveys. In September 2021, the NSF found the project compelling enough to grant the team the final $1 million round of funding. 

While still in the development stage, the pilot project will run for about a year and target the low-income communities surveyed in the research phase, among whom car ownership is low. Since downtown L.A. is lacking in bicycle infrastructure (its Bicycle Network Analysis score is just 26/100) and suffers from many of the same perceptions of bicyclists that we see nationally (namely, that they’re wealthy, white and male), CiBiC is an attempt to rethink urban bicycle commuting. By using technology to connect people — helping them identify and join bike flows — the hope is to promote a feeling of safety, motivation and camaraderie, turning a once dreaded commute into something healthy, sustainable and economically viable.

“Inclusion is a main driver of the project,” said Wagmister. “Part of what we want to do is transform L.A. bike culture from being a male, 20 to 30-year-old activity to being a communitywide activity. Our target rider would be a 45-year-old mother that has never taken her bike to her work — we want to make bike riding a possibility for those who have never considered it.”

In order to ensure novice riders feel comfortable, researchers plan to continue collaborating with the local community bicycling organizations, incorporating an educational component as well as recruiting experienced bikers to lead the bikepools. In addition to compensating the leaders, the plan is to also offer different financial incentives to encourage people to start bicycling. For those without access to a bike, donations and bike share are all on the table as possible options (METRO, the transportation agency that oversees L.A.’s bike share system, is an important partner on the project and already offers reduced-fare bike share passes for those in need). 

Many of the people in the target area have a commute between 1 and 5 miles, ideal for biking, and the plan is to design certain bike corridors that meet the group’s needs. For individuals with longer commutes, the hope is that the presence of bike flows will make it easier for people to connect biking with other modes of transit, like biking to a subway station. In a culture where commuting is generally considered a solo endeavor, CiBiC will ask people to come together to ensure one another’s safety as a group, sacrificing a little efficiency for comfort and creating a vibrant bike community in the process. 

“For women, the issue of sexual harassment in public transit environments is very real,” said  Loukaitou-Sideris, noting that alongside infrastructure, it’s one of the main reasons women don’t participate in biking. “A group of people biking together will make people feel less scared of being harassed and run over by traffic.”

While a mass of bicyclists taking over city streets might seem like a far-fetched Utopian dream, the idea of riders achieving safety in numbers — often dubbed critical mass — isn’t a new concept. In fact, the L.A. Critical Mass ride, which takes place on the last Friday of every month, is known as “America’s largest community bicycle ride.” In the last year, more and more families have turned to group bike commutes to make kids’ journeys to school safer. Known as a ‘bike bus’ or ‘bike train,’ such events have gained notoriety in cities like San Francisco and Barcelona, effectively shutting down streets to cars. Who’s to say a group of adult commuters couldn’t do the same? The researchers plan on prototyping a few flow corridors to start but hope to eventually have hundreds of routes across the city.

For Wagmister, the social technological component, as well as the collective creation of art, is key to rallying folks around the cause and generating a feeling of ownership.

“In the CiBiC system, bicycling is about going to work but it’s also a creative cultural activity,” said Wagmister, explaining that by projecting the routes in a public art display, people will be allowed to interact with the commuters in real-time. Information will be taken from the app, which will also have a journal component where people can share written and video feedback of their journey. “By riding in our system, you’re part of a collective of authors creating this amazing artwork.”

Of course, the CiBiC project is still research, and the team can’t say for sure how participants are going to feel afterward. Wagmister secured additional funding to run a simultaneous pilot in Buenos Aires, where the culture is different and the bike infrastructure is better. Still, he’s optimistic that both experiments will result in an increase in the quality of life for participants. If successful, the hope is that Metro will be able to maintain CiBiC long-term, positioning L.A. as an innovative mobility leader when it comes to meeting sustainability and equity goals. 

“The concept of human infrastructure driven by people in terms of the needs of people — it’s about time we start thinking about our communities that way,” said Wagmister. “Let’s let our communities design the way they want to go to work and then we can provide the support based on what they tell us they need.”

CiBiCi Researchers Hope to Make L.A. ‘Bikepooling’ A Thing

L.A. Researchers Hope to Make ‘Bikepooling’ a Thing

Pandemic-era changes to the built environment dramatically shifted the urban bike landscape. But if equity had been centered, would the numbers be higher?

In 2021, Santander Cycles, Transport for London’s bike share system, reported its busiest year to date. According to a recent press release, there were more than 10,900,000 bike hires last year and more than 1 million individual customers, 178,000 of which were new (a 7% increase over 2020 and more than double that of any year prior to 2020). By all accounts, it was a banner year for London bike share, echoing the larger increase in bicycling across the U.K. capital.

During the pandemic, the number of Londoners who bike jumped from 21% in 2019/20 to 27% in 2020/21. Participation also grew, particularly among minority communities and women. Additionally, Transport for London research shows that one in five people who don’t bike are open to starting, which could increase participation rates to more than 40%. In particular, more than half of Black and Asian non-bicyclists (49% and 46% respectively) reported that they were considering starting to bike.

London’s increase in bicycling can be directly attributed to its response to COVID-19, namely the ways in which the city prioritized new, equitable investments in infrastructure. In spring of 2020, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, released “Streetspace for London,” a detailed plan outlining projects and other initiatives to create more space for people to safely walk, bike, scoot and wheel their way around the city, helping to mitigate the effects of lockdown. The main projects were pretty simple: Build out a network of temporary bike lanes and routes, widen sidewalks and create 70 new Low-Traffic Neighborhoods (LTNs) by restricting vehicle traffic on low-speed side streets.

These changes transformed the city, which has a population of almost 9 million. Will Norman, London’s walking and cycling commissioner, shared that the city saw a 200% increase in bicycling compared to pre-pandemic numbers, touting the 100 kilometers (62 miles) of new bike lanes and LTNs as major reasons for the increased ridership. While both the new lane miles and the LTNs have proved popular, there were questions about the equitable distributions of the LTNs (in most cases, critiques centered around the lack of public outreach and not the creation of the LTN itself). 

A study published in October 2021 found that “LTN implementation has been broadly equitable at the city and micro levels, but the picture is more mixed at the district level, despite districts being encouraged to consider deprivation when planning LTN locations.” What the researchers concluded feels obvious, but is far from a given when it comes to city planning: Continuing to monitor the distribution of infrastructure changes among different demographics will only help planners to improve equity.

A different study credited COVID-era pop-up bike lanes with an 11-48% increase in bicycling trips in cities across Europe. While safe networks of bike infrastructure are crucial to increasing mode shift — especially for women and other underrepresented groups — evaluating their impact is often difficult due to the glacial pace at which most cities tend to operate. The quick roll-out of pop-up bike lanes in European cities presented a unique empirical opportunity to estimate the effect of new bicycling infrastructure. It only makes sense then that an increase in bike lanes, especially protected bike lanes, would also benefit bike share.

Of course, all of these changes mean little if they’re: a) not sustained, and b) confined to certain parts of a city, and thus, certain demographics. In London, efforts were made after the fact to incorporate public outreach into plans and see what can be done to increase accessibility to bicycling. While acting quickly and prioritizing people over cars played a crucial role in getting more folks to bike, more community engagement at the frontend likely would have ensured even larger increases — as well as more persistent and sustained use, which in turn can generate enormous public health benefits that outweigh initial investment costs. 

Transport for London acknowledged the importance of ensuring that people from all backgrounds feel comfortable biking, noting that such inclusion is key to creating healthier, more sustainable communities. Still, while National Health Service (NHS) staff are able to use Santander Cycles free of charge and students receive a 25% discount, no reduced pricing scheme currently exists for low-income residents. Bikes can be rented for £2 a day (about $2.70) or £90 a year ($120) for an unlimited number of 30-minute journeys. 

It’s one thing to acknowledge the importance of engaging diverse riders and another to reduce barriers in order to achieve it. Santander Cycles is currently undergoing an expansion in Southwark Council, with eight new docking stations being instituted over the next year, and is working to introduce around 500 electric bikes into its system by summer. The latter is a good step to reducing some of the barriers that prevent people from riding (namely fitness, age and trip distance) but the e-bikes will likely cost more, an insurmountable barrier for many.

What remains impressive about London is the number of pop-up bike lanes it instituted and the dramatic effect it had on bike share and bicycling in general. Writing about the pop-up bike lane study in Streetsblog, Kea Wilson notes how researchers couldn’t replicate the study in the U.S. because the scale of COVID infrastructure interventions was so much lower and our cities are more auto-centric. She adds, however, that the U.S. is in the unique position to continue to invest in quick build infrastructure while centering equity. We can learn a lot from what the U.K. did and didn’t do.

Adding quick-build infrastructure to underserved neighborhoods might get more low-income and BIPOC individuals to consider biking, but as long as our cities maintain unjust traffic enforcement and bike laws, residents can’t afford bike share or bike maintenance costs and riders aren’t served by network routes, the number of bicyclists will fall short of its full potential. To create mobility systems that serve everyone — and address climate change, air quality and other societal ills — we need to invest in equitable bicycling infrastructure and better bike share systems, ensuring that comprehensive community engagement is centered every step of the way.

Looking for more bike lessons from Europe? These seven cities are role models when it comes to great bicycling and offer tangible learnings for the U.S.

Topics

City Riding

PeopleForBikes at Work on City Riding

News

The Health Benefits of Electric Bikes

Asphalt Art Can Save Lives

A How-To Guide for Decriminalizing Mobility

How My Electric Bike Helped Me Heal

L.A. Researchers Hope to Make ‘Bikepooling’ a Thing

Lessons From London’s Bike Surge