By SLCgreen Intern Kyle Anderson
Note: Salt Lake City ran a pilot e-bike incentive program in 2024. This program had one-time funding and will not be continued in 2025.
Think about your last short-distance commute. Maybe you were running errands. Maybe you were on your way to work. Or maybe you were meeting up with friends at your favorite bar or coffee shop.
Salt Lakers have all kinds of reasons for getting around and enjoying this city we call home. Transportation is an important and necessary component of our day-to-day, but in the face of worsening air quality and the sustained effects of climate change, it’s a component we have to be increasingly conscious of. The question is no longer just about where we’re headed or when we get there, but how we choose to do so. And thanks to a new e-bike incentive program launched by SLCgreen, the possibilities for more sustainable transportation in Salt Lake City are expanding.
Why Incentivize E-bikes?
As the name suggests, e-bike incentive programs work to help people switch away from gas-powered vehicles for their short-distance commutes by lowering the upfront cost of an e-bike. But why focus on short-distance commutes? A study conducted by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics found that over half of vehicle trips in the United States were three miles or less, while 60 percent of all vehicle trips were less than six miles. This represents a lot of potential to mitigate emissions.
This program is not without precedent. In 2022, Denver launched an e-bike rebate program — the first of its kind in the country — and has seen great success, placing an estimated 4,700 e-bikes on the roads in its first year alone. Utah Clean Air Partnership (UCAIR) conducted a similar statewide incentive program last year, too, joining the hundreds of cities, counties, and nongovernmental organizations across the United States seeking to take part in this kind of initiative.
The Benefits
The benefits to our air quality might be the driving force behind our e-bike program, but that’s not to say that the benefits end there.
There are strong personal benefits to e-biking, like savings on car ownership and fuel costs. Utahns, on average, spend $12,000 a year on their cars, according to a 2023 report put out by the American Automobile Association. Trading a car for a cargo bike presents a huge opportunity to save. And even if you don’t replace your vehicle, you can still save a lot on gas!
Increasing e-bike ridership in Salt Lake City can also ease the competition for on-street parking and reduce wear and tear on our roads. In fact, the e-bike program in Tampa, Florida, is run entirely out of the city’s Parking Department. The way Tampa’s Parking Coordinator sees it, there’s no way for the City to provide enough car parking for its growing population. For him, supporting residents interested in switching to e-bikes is a key strategy to ensure all community members can easily access what they need downtown. That’s to say, if all your friends bike to a restaurant and you drive, you’re more likely to find a prime parking space!
One Piece of a Bigger Picture
It almost goes without saying that improving air quality in Salt Lake City is a complex, multifaceted issue. There’s no single solution, but rather, a menu of solutions that each deserve their own consideration. Promoting e-bike use is one response to a gap in sustainable transportation that can have tangible outcomes for the good of our city.
It’s not enough to only provide vouchers for this program to be truly effective; making e-bikes more available isn’t the same as making them accessible. That’s why the e-bike program offers vouchers for adaptive e-bikes for riders with disabilities, and why we’re partnering with Bike Utah to offer free classes teaching safe ridership.
Additionally, Salt Lake City is committed to improving its street infrastructure for bicycling through programs like the Neighborhood Byway system, which prioritizes smart street design for cyclist and pedestrian safety. When taken altogether, these programs and infrastructure upgrades can do a lot to make Salt Lake a more bike-friendly city.
Rediscovering Our Communities
Riding an e-bike is itself an opportunity to see the city from a new, immersed perspective. Far too often, car-dependent transit isolates us from our urban environment and its people. We get stuck in the bubbles of our vehicles and miss out on the textures of where we live. Transit is about connectivity, and getting to our destination is the ultimate goal. But what if we take the time to enjoy the journey, too?
For more information about the e-bike incentive program, including how to apply, visit slc.gov/sustainability/ebike. Applications close Tuesday, July 16th, at 11:59 p.m.