e bikes
Credit: Bureau of Land Management/Flickr
E-bikes are here to stay, but not everyone’s thrilled about it
E-bikes are rolling into national parks, but their welcome is far from unanimous as the National Park Service allows each park to decide their fate.
In short:
- The National Park Service has decided to let individual park superintendents choose whether to allow e-bikes, leading to varied rules across the country.
- Environmentalists fear e-bikes could disrupt wildlife and quiet backcountry areas, while advocates argue they make parks more accessible.
- The debate over e-bikes echoes past controversies around mountain bikes, with both sides anticipating more battles as e-bike popularity grows.
Key quote:
“What we’re concerned about is safety and conflicts and changing the backcountry.”
— Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association
Why this matters:
E-bikes offer a lower-impact way to explore our parks, potentially reducing the number of car trips within these protected areas. However, e-bikes may revolutionize park access but could also pose risks to sensitive environments and safety, making this a key issue in balancing conservation with accessibility. Read more: Another road is possible.
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How e-bike battery fires became a deadly crisis in New York City
City leaders are racing to regulate battery-powered mobility devices, which have been the source of over 100 fires so far this year, writes Winnie Hu for The New York Times.
In a nutshell:
As e-bikes have exploded in popularity, there has been a corresponding spike in exploding lithium ion batteries. Pandemic-driven demand and loose regulations opened the early market to scores of cheap machines propelled by cheap batteries. With market forces driving the headlong pursuit of more amp-hours, corners may have been cut. Mistakes may have been made. And small, powerful, lithium ion batteries, rushed to market to power this emerging revolution in transportation continue to pose a public health hazard.
Key quote:
“The problem is that we’re trying to squeeze too much energy out of these batteries, and that makes them more dangerous,” said Nikhil Gupta, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering.
Big picture:
E-bikes are here to stay. An energy transition is taking hold and electric bicycles and scooters, especially prized by those who work or commute on city streets, are leading the way. In urban centers like New York City and London, where people often charge their batteries in small apartments, lithium battery fires are emerging as a leading cause of fatal fires. The dangers of lithium batteries have been on the radar of fire officials for years and rigorous steps have been taken by regulators to make them safer in myriad consumer electronics and electric vehicles. Safety regulations for the manufacture of e-bike batteries, scant in the past, are ramping up and poised to change.
Read the full story in The New York Times.
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/dtv8/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
How e-bike battery fires became a deadly crisis in New York City
City leaders are racing to regulate battery-powered mobility devices, which have been the source of over 100 fires so far this year.
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Photo by G-FORCE Bike on Unsplash
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Batteries from reputable manufacturers that have undergone testing and certifications are widely considered safe. But problems may start to arise when batteries are damaged, modified or shoddily made.
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