Ebikes Transform Transportation Options In Hilly Places

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I’m a flatlander who was born and raised in Florida. A comment from reader “Jon’s Thoughts,” however, made me realize how much electric bikes (ebikes) are important to enabling more biking in hilly and mountainous places. He wrote:

“In the past we lived on a hill that made a regular bike a pretty strenuous trip, suitable for a good workout but not great for a casual trip to the store. The ebike definitely reduced the number of car trips for us. I suspect that there may be a number of folks living in hilly terrain that have reduced car trips with an ebike.”

I just took a brief trip to Western North Carolina. While I have been there several times and spent one summer in the mountains of North Carolina, I forgot the extent of the hills and mountains there. Just driving up and down, up and down, up and down was challenging. Biking — for me and most other people — would be out of the question. Ebikes must make biking a real option all of a sudden, and bring the opportunity to bike for transportation purposes to whole regions of people.

I did live in Chapel Hill for a few years, and I lived car-free there. I biked to work and nearby stores. When I had to go all the way up the hill to the University of North Carolina campus or downtown, though, biking was a lot of work. I was in my mid-20s and it was normally fine, but there were also many times when I just decided to put my bike on the bus. With an ebike, there’d be no waiting for buses or struggling to get up the long hill on Franklin St. Yes, I’d get my exercise in and would bike completely human-powered for some of the trip, but I’d have the option to get support from the battery and motor of an ebike (and you can be sure I’d use it).

When you think about all the places around the country and around the world where moderate to steep hills really limit most people’s ability to bike, you can see how ebikes make all the difference and open up the world to countless people.

Also, it’s really about providing the healthy habit as an opportunity to people of all ages and fitness levels. No matter how old or in/out of shape someone is, they can get on an ebike, use muscle power as much as they like, and get themselves up and down hills smoothly and conveniently.

It may take a while for this realization to spread. In places where people bike a lot, the introduction of ebikes is naturally going to spread by word of mouth quickly. In places where biking is seldom done except for recreational purposes, it may take a while for people to think about the option — but these are often the places that can benefit the most from the growth and expansion of ebikes. As noted above, hills and mountains may have stifled all but the most fringe interests in bike commuting, but ebikes provide a new option that could open up this possibility to numerous people.

*This article was kindly supported by Lectric eBikes.