Editor’s note: This commentary is by Ross Saxton, of Waitsfield, who is the business partnerships manager at Local Motion, a statewide bike and walk advocacy nonprofit working to ensure that Vermont is the best state for biking and walking on the East Coast.
“We travel no faster in cities than we used to with the horse and buggy.” This sentiment from urban planner Jeff Fleck gets right to the point: Driving cars and trucks in our downtowns does not make a whole lot of sense from a time savings perspective. Nor does it make sense from an energy use, financial, health or safety perspective. So why do we still get in the car for a one- or two-mile trip? We don’t have to, and Vermonters have the choice to start traveling in our downtowns and beyond in more of a Vermont-y way.
Having grown up, gone to school, and worked in Vermont for my entire life, I know what Vermont-y is. Like most of my neighbors, I’m frugal with my money, like living in the woods, love my truck, and prefer to get things done on my own. All these attributes are served well by bikes and cargo bikes. E-bikes — bikes with a battery and electric motor that add some power to your pedaling — simply make bikes even more capable and accessible to more Vermonters.
Let’s consider why bikes and e-bikes are the Vermont way to get around:
Financial frugality: According to AAA, the average American pays more than $8,000 per year to own and operate a car when factoring in monthly payments, gas, maintenance, insurance, tires, and depreciation. A reliable conventional bike, on the other hand, will cost you $400 -$2,000 to purchase. To maintain that bike, it will cost you $100 a year if you bring it to a shop for regular maintenance. A new e-bike will cost you about $2,700 or less and give you a range of up to 75 miles per charge. A cargo e-bike can cost upwards of $5,000, which is still less than half the cost of a basic new car. You can even get a low-interest loan through VSECU for your bike purchase and pay less than your electricity bill per month.
Living in the woods: Vermont is a rural state as we all know. But we also have a lot of downtowns. Once downtown, there’s no reason why most of us can’t park the car and either walk or ride a bike everywhere. When I get to Burlington for work, my truck sits in one spot and I get everywhere by my own power. E-bikes open up a new option for a lot of rural Vermonters to get downtown. Even if you live 10 miles away from the grocery store or work, e-bikes will get you there and back like a Tour de France rider, just a lot less sweaty. The way that e-bikes open up a new world of biking for people is incredible. You can live in the woods and still get to town without a vehicle on many days throughout the year.
Love my truck: I’m not saying that I’m going to start hauling cords of firewood with a bike, but I think you’ll be surprised to learn what people are doing with cargo e-bikes these days instead of using a truck. Personally, I like to bring a fat tire e-bike with a trailer into the woods for deer season. My friends Stephanie and Sam in Burlington transport their two daughters in a cargo e-bike almost every day, and so do dozens of other parents that I see riding along the bike paths, bike lanes, and streets. My buddy Dave in Brattleboro confidently rode past cars stuck in the ditch one snowy day this past winter while dropping off his son at school at the top of the hill — on a cargo e-bike (visit www.vbikesolutions.org to find his fleet of cargo e-bikes to borrow in Brattleboro, or visit www.localmotion.org/ebikes to reserve an e-bike from Local Motion’s Burlington fleet). I know someone who picks up their Christmas tree every year with their cargo e-bike and another person who trailers their canoe to the lake on one. Heck, the city of Burlington is planning to replace an ATV with an e-bike and trailer for pulling lawnmowers and other equipment along the bike path. After a couple weeks of testing, Williston is also thinking about adding an e-bike to its fleet for a variety of work tasks.
Independence: What else is more Vermont-y than our independent nature? The thing that sets Vermont independence apart, though, is how we tend to be independent with our community in mind. Bikes and e-bikes let us be independent while making our communities better places. You can go where you want, when you want. You go your own speed. With some cargo space or trailer, you pretty much bring what you want. You have all of this with a bike or e-bike, and you’re reducing traffic, making streets safer for everyone, preventing pollution, and giving yourself a reason to stop by at the local bakery to spend a few dollars — after all, you’re burning all those calories. I hope to see more Vermonters understand that bike paths, protected bike lanes, and good walking infrastructure like sidewalks add to the ability of Vermonters to be more independent while improving communities — this is type of community mindfulness that Vermonters possess, and I’m eager for more folks to expand it to our roads.
There you have it: bikes and e-bikes are the Vermont way to get around.
