Bicyclists press Congress to make roads safer and e-bikes cheaper

Eliza Relman — April 3, 2023  Insider.com

• Democrats want to provide tax credits for e-bike purchases and more funding for road safety. 
• Republicans largely aren’t on board. 
• Senator Mitt Romney said making room for bike lanes is “the height of stupidity” and opposes e-bike credits.

The GOP is skeptical about a new push for cheaper e-bikes and safer bike infrastructure.

Democratic lawmakers recently re-introduced legislation that would give Americans up to $1,500 off the purchase of an electric bicycle. Biking advocates are also pushing for the passage of a bill that would unlock additional federal funds for road safety.

Some GOP leaders have explicitly stoked fear about progressive efforts to make cities more livable.

 

Last year, Republican Senator Tom Cotton warned Fox News viewers that Democrats “want to make you live in downtown areas, and high-rise buildings, and walk to work, or take the subway, or ride an electric scooter” and “make us all poor.”

 

The Arkansas lawmaker added, “they want to get you out of your pickup truck, out of your SUV, out of your home in the suburbs where you can have a backyard with your kids.”

Republican lawmakers are far from on board. The E-BIKE Act faces an especially uphill battle on the Hill with a GOP-controlled House.

“We’re over-subsidizing electric vehicles as it is now,” Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, told Insider in the Capitol this week. “I don’t want to add to the unfairness of the current system where electric cars are free riders and don’t pay to help maintain our roads and bridges through a gas tax or any kind of surcharge.”

Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, also dismissed subsidies for e-bikes and insisted that those who can’t afford cars should take mass transit.

“I’m not going to spend money on buying e-bikes for people like me who have bought them — they’re expensive,” he said. “Removing automobile lanes to put in bike lanes is, in my opinion, the height of stupidity, it means more cars backing up, creating more emissions.“

Proponents of the tax credits say they could be more targeted towards low-income people to assuage concerns about subsidizing a luxury good for higher-income people. Mass transit often isn’t an option for workers in suburban or rural communities, they say.

As the E-BIKE Act stands now, it would give Americans who earn up to $150,000, or up to $300,000 for joint tax filers, a refundable tax credit of 30% off the purchase of an e-bike, up to $1,500.

“Cycling is the most efficient form of human transportation ever devised. By burning calories instead of fossil fuels, we can make our communities healthier and more livable,” Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer, who helped introduce the bill, said in a statement. “With an e-bike, anyone can be a bike commuter, but the high cost discourages too many consumers.”

The opposition to pro-bicycle policy has to be understood in the larger context of the culture war and conservative fears of Democrats’ climate-friendly agenda, said Tim Carney, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

“There is a widespread suspicion on the right today that liberals want to take away their way of life,” Carney told Insider. “This idea that the left knows there’s only one right way to live, it’s the way that we want to live and we’re going to force it on you. That is in the background of the mind of every conservative, and so when they hear more bike lanes, they think, ‘Okay, what is that code for?'”

Some GOP leaders have explicitly stoked fear about progressive efforts to make cities more livable. Last year, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton warned Fox News viewers that Democrats “want to make you live in downtown areas, and high-rise buildings, and walk to work, or take the subway, or ride an electric scooter” and “make us all poor.”

The Arkansas lawmaker added, “they want to get you out of your pickup truck, out of your SUV, out of your home in the suburbs where you can have a backyard with your kids.”

But many conservatives support bike infrastructure and road safety, particularly when it’s aimed at helping kids and families. Carney told attendees at the annual National Bike Summit in Washington last week to frame their efforts as building safer and more interconnected communities.

“What parents need now is the ability to set their kids free and have them be safe,” Carney said. “Better bike safety, and better bike trails and lanes make life easier and more fun for your average suburban parents and for the kids. It also builds resilience and independence among kids, and makes us have fewer snowflake kids when they get to college.”

Utah bicycling groups and Democrats call on Mitt Romney to rethink his comments

Reprinted from Insider.com, by Eliza Relman — May 12, 2023

• Mitt Romney faced widespread criticism after telling Insider that bike lanes are “the height of stupidity.”
• Utah bicycling groups sent a letter to their US senator asking him to “reconsider” his position.
• Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz called Romney’s position on bike infrastructure “flat wrong” and “wacky.”

Nine Utah groups that support bicycling sent a letter to their US senator, Mitt Romney, requesting that he “reconsider” his recent comments to Insider calling bike lanes “the height of stupidity.”

The Republican lawmaker told Insider last month that he opposes bike lane construction that replaces car lanes, claiming that it increases automobile carbon emissions by worsening traffic congestion. Romney also told Insider that he opposes federal legislation that would offer tax rebates on electric bicycle purchases.

The groups pointed out in their letter that “bike lanes are proven to reduce car traffic and resulting emissions,” citing studies by Carnegie Mellon University and McGill University.

“We invite you to join any of us for a bike ride to highlight the value of functional bike infrastructure in Utah,” they wrote, calling his views “both inaccurate regarding emissions and hurtful to the exploding number of Utahns who opt to travel by bicycle.”

“We ask you to reconsider this statement and listen to your constituents who support investing in the connected, protected bike infrastructure keeping Utahns safe and active,” they wrote.

Spokespeople for Romney didn’t respond to Insider’s request for comment for this article.

Sen. Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat who introduced the E-BIKE Act, told Insider that Romney’s arguments regarding cycling are “wrong” and that he’d speak with him privately about the issue.

“I love Mitt,” Schatz told Insider recently in the Capitol. “I don’t want to get in a public fight with him because he’s one of the Republicans that I admire the most, but he’s just flat wrong on substance here.”

“This idea that you’re either a pedestrian, or an automobile driver, or a transit user, or a biker, has no basis in reality,” Schatz said. “Most people are all of those things depending on the day and depending on the circumstances. And so the basic principle in transportation is, however people want to move around, efficiently and safely, the federal government should enable that.”

Schatz argued that cities and states put bicyclists and other micro-mobility users in an increasingly untenable position by failing to provide safe and adequate infrastructure. He called Romney’s argument that bike lanes increase emissions “wacky.”

“Bikes are increasingly a viable way for people to move around — it’s often cheaper, more efficient, and more enjoyable,” Schatz went on. “We’re not forcing anybody from an automobile onto a bike, but the truth is, the market is starting to demand that, but the bike lanes haven’t caught up. So now you have a bunch of bike users, or would-be bike users, and a relatively dangerous transportation system for them.”

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat and one of Congress’ biggest biking advocates, told Insider this week that Romney’s comments don’t make sense.

“Every person on a bicycle is somebody who’s not in a car in front of you,” he said.

He added, “I’ve been working with bike lane construction all my career, and I’ve heard the complaints and the arguments that they’re concerned about congestion or damaged property. And then in a matter of months, people are putting in their real estate advertisements that it’s next to a bike lane. These are extraordinarily popular.”

Rep. Mike Quigley, an Illinois Democrat who told Insider he rides his bicycle around DC “more than any other member by a factor of ten,” insisted that protected bike lanes are key for road safety.

“As much as I ride my bike, unless it’s a protected bike lane I don’t trust it,” he said.

Quigley argued that biking advocates have to make both data-based and emotional arguments for better infrastructure. He described Romney as “a very prominent person — otherwise pretty smart — who doesn’t get the fundamentals of what we’re trying to do and why.” Advocates have to make the case that biking is healthier and better for the environment than driving, while also appealing to the uniting desire to keep kids and families safe on the roads, he said.

“It’s not just getting the resources there, it’s changing the culture and the state of mind,” Quigley said.

Reprinted from the article “Utah bicycling groups and Democrats call on Mitt Romney to rethink his comments calling bike lanes ‘the height of stupidity'”
Reprinted from Insider.com, by Eliza Relman — May 12, 2023