![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/E-bike-story-Lee-Egan-family.jpg\")
The Lee-Egan family ditched the family car and now rely on three e-bikes to get around. From left: Chris, Libby and daughters Tilly, 8, and Ginny, 6, in their Urban Arrow in Cedar Rose Park. This photo was used for their 2023 Christmas card. Credit: Eric Panzer<\/p>\n
Editors\u2019 note: This week we\u2019re republishing some of our favorite stories of 2025. This story was first published on Oct. 7.<\/p>\n
At around 7:30 on a typical weekday morning, Erin Smith hops on her e-bike and rides two blocks to the North Berkeley BART, where she catches a train to San Francisco, then rides three miles from Civic Center to her job at the Cal Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Around 8 a.m., Nat Binns maneuvers his cargo e-bike onto Woolsey Street in South Berkeley with his two children, Conor, 6 and Bridget, 3, in back. He drops off Conor at Malcolm X Elementary and then rides a little more than two blocks to drop off Bridget at Via Nova Preschool.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Around 2 p.m., Naveen Gattu leaves his North Berkeley home on Rose Street, heading on his e-bike to pick up his 6-year-old twins, Kyra and Alivia, from their elementary school.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By 4 p.m., 81-year-old Helena Worthen, who lives in the Berkeley Hills, can be found riding her e-bike on the Monterey Avenue bike lane, en route to the Monterey Market.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe e-bike makes the hills go away,\u201d Worthen said, \u201cand it doesn\u2019t use gas. But it\u2019s fun and easy and replaces the car.\u201d She even uses the bike to tote her cello.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These riders are part of a growing legion of e-bike enthusiasts who can be seen all over town, hauling groceries, children or simply taking in the scenery, replacing cars with a more affordable and earth-friendly form of transport. That motivation \u2014 to reduce the use of fossil fuels, as vehicle emissions are the leading driver of climate change locally<\/a> and nationally<\/a> \u2014 has also spurred several government programs handing out rebates to make e-bikes affordable to low- and middle-income residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n More than 1 in 4 Berkeley households do not own a private vehicle, with an even higher share of students, low-income residents and residents with a disability forgoing driving, according to a 2023 survey conducted by the U.S. Census. And 9% of Berkeley residents who commute to work do so by bicycle, about 15 times the national average.<\/p>\n The surprisingly large hauling capacity of the ubiquitous cargo e-bike is why an e-bike is replacing the need for a second car for some families, bucking an American tradition already on the wane, or replacing their need for a vehicle altogether.\u00a0<\/p>\n Libby and Chris Lee-Egan, a Westbrae couple with two e-bikes and two daughters, found they were using their Subaru Forester so rarely, it was being inhabited by rats. Instead of getting a new car, they did the math and bought a third e-bike, which they use only for local trips.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAll the money we used to spend on insurance, worrying about someone bumping into it or being annoyed in traffic,\u201d Libby said. \u201cI\u2019m very grateful.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Gattu said what he appreciates about his e-bike is its ability to \u201cmove a lot of things and kids and bikes in a very compact way.\u201d<\/p>\n Even though his girls ride to school in the morning on their own non-electric pedal bikes, they don\u2019t want to ride uphill on the way home. So he loads the girls on the back of his cargo bike and straps on their pedal bikes, creating what he described as \u201ca grotesque sculpture.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n With the average cost of an e-bike at about $3,000, e-bikes offer a cheaper option for those who can\u2019t afford a car, and they don\u2019t require any licensing, insurance or registration that a car or motorcycle does.\u00a0<\/p>\n Apply now for an e-bike rebate from Ava Community Energy<\/a><\/p>\n In recent weeks, many in Berkeley have been able to buy lower-end cargo e-bikes for just $600 or $700 \u2014 or even less for low-income residents \u2014 through an Ava Community Energy rebate lottery<\/a> available in Alameda County, along with its service area in Stockton, Lathrop and Tracy in San Joaquin County.\u00a0<\/p>\n Local bike shops say the rebate, with $10 million behind it, has been much more effective at driving sales than a previous state-run program<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since e-bikes don\u2019t require any registration, the city doesn\u2019t have any insights into just how many e-bikes are on the road. But those numbers are growing, especially because of the Ava subsidies. Of the more than 10,000 people who have applied to the program since it launched in July<\/a>, almost 2,000 are Berkeley residents. So far, Ava has dispersed 4,500 rebates from the first three random monthly drawings, with 882 of the winners Berkeley residents, as of the end of September.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t sell anything else at this point,\u201d said Grayson Mendivil, of Sports Basement\u2019s bike department. He described the uptick as the largest increase in adoption he has seen in his career. \u201cIt\u2019s been more or less taking up all of our time at the shop.\u201d<\/p>\n There are other savings to e-bike ownership.\u00a0<\/p>\n After the city gave free e-bikes to 56 residents<\/a> and studied what happened, almost 70% reported saving<\/a> money on transportation, avoiding nearly $900 in total car ownership costs on average. And 77% of participants who participated in the pilot project reported that once they were given e-bikes or e-trikes, their reliance on cars and motor vehicles decreased.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBike culture, in general, tends to be for people who are slim and lightweight,\u201d said Tom Lent, e-bike project coordinator for the Walk Bike Berkeley, a nonprofit that advocates for pedestrian and bike safety in the city, said. \u201cE-bikes are more accessible to all types of bodies. It\u2019s broadened bike culture tremendously because it\u2019s accessible to people who don\u2019t have the interest or just the plain old ability.\u201d<\/p>\n Once Smith, 33, was diagnosed with a progressive heart disease, she wasn\u2019t allowed to ride a pedal bike anymore and found her e-bike to be an \u201camazing\u201d solution.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe e-bike lets me keep riding bikes and spend time outside, even though I have this health condition,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that a lot of people realize that e-bikes make things accessible to people with disabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n A legion of former cyclists Most e-bikers come to the pastime with life-long backgrounds as conventional bikers. Smith described herself as \u201can avid cyclist\u201d who did bike tours and mountain biking, too. Before working in San Francisco, she rode her pedal bike to Berkeley High School, where she had been a biology teacher for four years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Worthen, along with her husband, Joe Berry, 76, likewise used \u201cregular bikes\u201d for leisure and groceries. \u201cAs time went on, it got harder for me to get up hills.\u201d<\/p>\n Lent, too, had been a rider all his life until a broken ankle forced him to remain couch-bound for a month-and-a-half. He got his first e-bike a little over a year ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n While most riders use their e-bikes for practical reasons, the vehicles also turn chores into an opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEspecially on a sunny, warmish day, just riding around on a bike you experience the city differently,\u201d said Kera Bartlett Binns, the wife of Nat, who picks up Conor and Bridget at the end of the school day. \u201cI notice a lot more than when I\u2019m driving around for sure. It\u2019s a nice alternative to taking a walk.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike road and mountain bikes, however, e-bikes are typically not purchased solely for fitness, though they do offer some health benefits on a smaller scale.\u00a0<\/p>\n If Binns wants more of a workout, she will simply lower the pedal assist, similar to lowering the tension on a stationary bike, requiring her to work harder.\u00a0<\/p>\n Worthen joins her husband on what she calls \u201cpleasure rides.\u201d They entail riding down Marin Avenue, taking bike paths to the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park<\/a> in Richmond, hopping on the Richmond ferry to San Francisco, coming back on the Oakland ferry and riding home. The round trip: more than 20 miles.\u00a0<\/p>\n The types of\u00a0 e-bike that cap speeds at 20 mph are allowed on most bike trails and roads and more public spaces have been giving them the green light. In 2023 the East Bay Regional Park District opened over 800 miles of trails<\/a> to them.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sales have been climbing, but tariffs could raise prices<\/p>\n E-bikes are a fast-growing mode of transportation.\u00a0<\/p>\n A recent survey<\/a> found that e-bikes represent the most rapidly expanding sector in the bike market, making up 63% of the growth in dollar sales of all bicycles between 2019 and 2023. The U.S. imported a record 1.5 million e-bikes<\/a> in 2024, outpacing that year\u2019s 1.3 million in electric car sales<\/a>.<\/p>\n Electric bikes are sold at every Berkeley bike shop that sells new road and mountain bikes. Pacific E-Bike has been selling e-bikes the longest, since 2006. In March the store moved from Carleton Street to a San Pablo Avenue<\/a> location that\u2019s across the street from RAD Power Bikes, a national chain, which opened in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n Store manager Scott LaForgey at Pacific E-Bike said the store\u2019s No. 1 customer is the commuter and that sales took off in 2020, right before the pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t order \u2019em fast enough,\u201d he said. \u201cFewer people wanted to drive. The San Rafael Bridge opened up to bikers and suddenly a whole bunch of commuters could bike to work.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The store carries 32 brands of e-bikes and most are priced between $1,500 and $2,000. Sports Basement\u2019s top-selling Aventon models are in a similar price range.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Blue Heron Bikes started selling e-bikes in 2012. In those days bikes were designed, built and finished and then a motor added to it, said Jordan Chase, the store\u2019s manager.\u00a0<\/p>\n The turning point came about six or seven years ago when the German engineering company Bosch developed an integrated system that incorporated the motor, Chase said. That led to a boom in sales.<\/p>\n Blue Heron\u2019s best sellers are the Tern, which has \u201ca long tail\u201d and can carry one child (about $3,000) or two (about $4,000). Chase compared the Riese & Muller (around $8,000), with various carriers that can haul up to four children, to a minivan.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re getting an e-bike, but it\u2019s a total car replacement in that sense,\u201d Chase said.<\/p>\n Stay True Cycles has been selling e-bikes since its founding five-and-a-half years ago, said owner Nick Hoeper-Tomich. His store\u2019s biggest customers are commuters, especially UC Berkeley students. Such bikes make up about 15% to 20% of sales.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since most e-bikes and their parts are made in China, future sales may not be as brisk due to a 25% tariff, according to People for Bikes<\/a>, an advocacy group.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPrices have already started going up,\u201d LaForgey said. He said he will avoid passing on those increases at least until mid-next year.<\/p>\n For those who cannot afford an e-bike or want to try one out before buying, they can rent one of the 221 Bay Wheels e-bikes<\/a> that are available at 37 stations across the city. Sports Basement also rents e-bikes. Renting is a frequent choice of UC Berkeley students.\u00a0<\/p>\n The proliferation of e-bikes in Marin County created a sharp increase in crashes involving young riders.\u00a0<\/p>\n Data from the county\u2019s health department show that e-bikes have a lower crash rate for all age groups over 16 compared to conventional bikes, but result in higher crash rates among riders between 10 and 15. In July, new regulations went into effect<\/a> banning kids under 16 from riding throttle-powered, Class 2 e-bikes in unincorporated areas of the county, the first legislation of its kind.\u00a0<\/p>\n Children as young as middle school were tricking-out such bikes to go up to 50 mph or buying faster illegal bikes online.<\/p>\n In Berkeley, a teenager riding an e-bike, who had the right of way, was hit by a car that made an unexpected turn in May 2024, the Berkeley Scanner reported<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n And in February, a father who transported his children in an e-bike<\/a> was hit by a car in West Berkeley, ejecting the child. The father had a minor injury. That crash led to calls for safer bike infrastructure at the intersection at Heinz Avenue and Seventh Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n But so far, Berkeley has not seen a major upswing in youth e-bike incidents.<\/p>\n \u201cMarin is having this problem, but we don\u2019t see it so much\u201d in Berkeley or Oakland, said Kelly Dunlap, bike education program co-manager at Bike East Bay. That may change, she said, as e-bikes become more popular.<\/p>\n The Berkeley Police Department\u2019s traffic safety data<\/a> records at least two incidents involving an e-bike since February 2024.<\/p>\n The main complaint Oakland-based Bike East Bay receives about e-bikes in Marin, Clayton and Danville is about kids being reckless on e-bikes, either driving too fast or being discourteous.\u00a0<\/p>\n To remedy that, the organization offers education classes aimed at traditional bicycles.\u00a0<\/p>\n One problem she\u2019s seen with bikes in general is that riders are unaware of speed limits on multi-use paths like the Ohlone Greenway and the Bay Trail, which runs along the Berkeley shoreline.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s 15 mph,\u201d Dunlap said.\u00a0<\/p>\n More bike lanes are on the way in Berkeley Despite the many plusses, e-biking does pose safety concerns that affect all bikers. Their own experiences and news reports of the occasional collision gives riders pause \u2014 and sometimes motivates them.\u00a0<\/p>\n As a result, many e-bike riders are also involved in safety activism \u2014 pushing for better signage, safer intersections, a car-free Telegraph, an expanded network of protected bike lane<\/a>s and for the city to fulfill its \u201cVision Zero\u201d pledge to eliminate deadly traffic crashes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe dangers are definitely in front of mind,\u201d said Kera Binns. The 2023 death of a four-year-old<\/a> killed on a bicycle near Lake Merritt motivated her.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt galvanized me in terms of, how do we create more infrastructure to allow people to bike and reduce opposition?\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since the adoption of the 2017 Bicycle Plan<\/a>, the city has built 10 new miles of bikeways \u2013 four of which are protected lanes separated from car traffic. These completed, separated bikeways include Milvia Street<\/a>, Bancroft Way<\/a>, Hearst Avenue, Dana Street and Fulton Street, among others.<\/p>\n But adding to that infrastructure can be expensive and controversial. A plan to build protected bike lanes along Hopkins Street set off a fierce debate in 2023<\/a> between bike advocates, businesses and residents, many of whom worried about the loss of parking spaces the project would require; city officials shelved the project.<\/p>\n More projects are on<\/a> the way<\/a>, said city spokesperson Seung Lee, and many activists agree the city is on the verge of a major transformation<\/a> as money starts flowing from Measure FF toward bike infrastructure projects, pothole repair and other street and sidewalk improvements.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re trying to build out a fuller bicycle network,\u201d Lee said, and the city is soliciting input on an updated bike plan<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lee himself is an e-biker. He commutes from his home in North Oakland to his offices in downtown Berkeley, a 12-minute trip on Bicycle Boulevards and protected bike lanes on Milvia, where he encounters little vehicular traffic and many Berkeley High School students on e-bikes. \u201cIt\u2019s quite leisurely,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Worthen, who remembers what it was like to bike in early 1970s Berkeley, said that bike safety has improved in Berkeley for all riders.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t ride my bike much then,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were no bike lanes. And there really wasn\u2019t a consensus that you were supposed to wear a helmet. It\u2019s much safer now.\u201d<\/p>\n What is \u2014 and is not \u2014 an e-bike <\/p>\n Typically larger and heavier than a road or mountain bike but less beefy than a motorcycle, e-bikes typically weigh between 40-60 pounds. The most lightweight models, many of them folding, come in at as little as 30 pounds.<\/p>\n E-bikes \u2014 including cargo and adaptive bikes, like trikes and recumbents \u2014 fall into three classifications in California, which have to do with speed and whether a bike is powered by a throttle or a pedal assist.\u00a0<\/p>\n Class 1 is limited to 20 mph of pedal support with a motor that will help you when needed, but never go over 20 mph.\u00a0<\/p>\n Class 2 is similar, except it also has a push-button or twist throttle that allows you to use the motor without pedalling, like a lightly powered motorcycle. The motor in this class will also top out at 20 mph.<\/p>\n Class 3, which has only a pedal assist and no throttle, allows riding up to 28 mph before the motor cuts out. All Class 3 riders must wear helmets.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Natera_E-BIKES_251001_025.jpg\")
Naveen Gattu can carry his 6-year-old twins \u2014 and their pedal bikes \u2014 on his cargo e-bike, a Tern GSD. Credit: Ximena Natera for Berkeleyside<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Natera_E-BIKES_251001_021.jpg\")
Gattu rigs his daughter\u2019s pedal bike to the family e-bike, assembling what he calls \u201ca grotesque sculpture.\u201d\u00a0Credit: Ximena Natera for Berkeleyside
\nHow to score an e-bike cheaply <\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Natera_E-BIKES_250929_006.jpg\")
And 9% of Berkeley residents who commute to work do so by bicycle, around 15 times the national average. Credit: Ximena Natera for Berkeleyside<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Natera_E-BIKES_250929_005.jpg\")
Helena Worthen, 81, a lifelong biker, uses her e-bike to run errands and move up and down the hills. Credit: Ximena Natera for Berkeleyside<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/large-NOV-17_E-Bikes.jpg\")
Emil Rofors rides his e-bike in South Berkeley in November 2022. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside\/CatchLight<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Natera_E-BIKES_250929_011.jpg\")
Worthen rides a 2019 Raleigh Detour, an e-bike with pedal assist but no throttle. Credit: Ximena Natera for Berkeleyside<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Natera_E-BIKES_250929_014.jpg\")
To get back home from the gym, Worthen says she has to battle it out with the 18 bus on Solano Avenue. Credit: Ximena Natera for Berkeleyside<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/large-Natera_230201_093_BikesonHopkins_10.jpg\")
A woman with two children bikes on Hopkins Street in 2023. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside\/CatchLight<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Natera_E-BIKES_251001_022.jpg\")
Six-year-old Alivia (left) and her twin sister Kyra board their dad\u2019s e-bike. Credit: Ximena Natera for Berkeleyside
\nCrashes have led to restrictions elsewhere<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Natera_Southside-Streets_251001_012.jpg\")
A new protected bike lane at Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue, added as part of a $16.5 million redesign of Southside Berkeley\u2019s streets<\/a>. Credit: Ximena Natera for Berkeleyside<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/large-Natera_230121_005_BikesonHopkins_13.jpg\")
People with their bikes and e-bikes rallied in support of a protected bike lane on Hopkins Street in December 2023. Credit: Ximena Natera\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Natera_E-BIKES_250929_010.jpg\")
Helena Worthen turns on her e-bike. Credit: Ximena Natera for Berkeleyside<\/p>\n