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Boston to offer rebates to spur e-bike use among people who might not otherwise be able to afford them
By adamg on Mon, 08/05/2024 - 4:12pm
Mayor Wu announced today the city will offer vouchers, ranging in value from $800 to $2,400, to help lower-income residents, seniors and people with disabilities afford a battery-powered bicycle.
The city estimates it will give out a total of 1,000 vouchers, through a $1.5-million program funded by federal Covid relief funds.
To qualify for the Boston E-Bikes Incentive Program, a person must be a Boston resident over 18 years old who fits at least one of the criteria: income-eligible adult (at or below 40% AMI), a senior over 60 years of age, or an adult with a chronic or permanent disability. Qualified applicants will be randomly selected to receive a voucher that can be used within 90 days in person at one of the participating bike shops.
E-bikes eligible for the program discount have a safety-certified rechargeable battery and a pedal assist that provides a more effortless riding experience. They can give access to biking for people with mobility challenges, or residents who need to travel long distances or up hilly terrain. Cargo e-bikes, which can also be purchased through the program, have additional storage and passenger-carrying capacity. In addition to traditional e-bikes, the program will provide support toward the purchase of powered handcycle wheelchair attachments and adaptive e-bikes that can be modified to meet the needs of individuals with chronic disabilities.
The vouchers will also come with a $150 credit toward the purchase of bike-safety equipment,
In a statement, Wu said the program will help people in vulnerable groups more easily get around the city - and help reduce overall carbon emissions.
Applications for e-bike rebates will be available and have to be filed between Aug. 12 and Aug. 24, at boston.gov/ebikes. Applications for powered handcycle wheelchair attachments are available now through Sept. 5 at that address. The city will then use a lottery to select voucher recipients. A second voucher lottery will be held in the spring.
The city will host e-bike fairs at City Hall and in Mattapan to show off available e-bikes.
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Comments
I thought Wu was trying to raise tax rates
Because we have an anticipated budget shortfall. While small, why are we adding new line items to a budget that we cant already afford.
Two separate pools of money
The ARPA money from the feds can only be spent on specific capital-ish things, and has to be spent by a certain date or it goes away.
The city's main source of funding for day-to-day operations, by far, is property taxes, which could be affected by continuing downtown office vacancies as property owners ask for - and get, decreases in their assessed values, which determines in part how much they have to pay in taxes.
Hopefully your wife is in charge
Of your household’s finances. This could have offset an expenditure in the other pool of money.
Two pools of money is a crock of you know what.
This is a waste of taxpayer resources during a time of fiscal uncertainty.
It’s a bad decision no matter how much you idolize Wu.
And hopefully ...
Neither you nor your wife have anything to do with government finances, because you obviously have no clue how they work.
But it really works the way Adam describes it
The money can be spent in a certain way, or it cannot be spent, that's essentially the set of options under federal grant funding. It's really too bad that you think household finance is a suitable proxy for government finance. They are very different, and it's simplistic notions such as yours that lead to some of the terrible choices people make in the voting booth.
lol
this idea that government spending is analogous to household spending needs to die
I’m as big of a cycling
I’m as big of a cycling advocate as anyone (though McGrory’s column re Boylston Street today was awful), but aside about the part about folks w/disabilities, this is a complete boondoggle.
Ummm....instead of
Ummm....instead of subsidizing 1,000 people with one-time purchases, why not give 2,500 city residents $600 vouchers/codes that can be used on e-bikes for years on Blue Bikes? This way the funds both help those use ebikes, while also ensuring the funds help further build-out the Blue Bike program? Seems like a real missed opportunity...
BlueBikes
Are already heavily subsidized. And if you are on MassHealth or some other assistance program you qualify for like rides that cost a buck with a free membership.
Or at least this is how it was a few years ago.
Yeah you could argue that it would make rides free but still.
With this consumers get a rebate on their choice of an eBike maker. And its theirs to keep.
And you actually make it the
And you actually make it the last mile not just to the nearest Bluebike rental rack. Why not both though?
Is it going to be like with
Is it going to be like with handicapped placards? Are electric scooters eligible?
Who's brother in law owns an ebike company?
COVID funds for e bike vouchers?
Who cares?
What the voters want to know is how much is this costing the tax paying homeowners?
Absolutely nothing
See the answer above.
E-bikes
The covid cash is coming from the next seven generations of taxpayers. The government has no money of its own.
lol
lol. troll. back under your bridge.
Minuscule amounts but federal
Minuscule amounts but federal money doesn’t fall from the sky. The US taxpayer (including those living in Boston) is funding this program.
Not quite
Most of us who are City of Boston property owners and municipal tax payers also pay Federal taxes. So while you are correct that this program doesn’t cost me anything as a city of Boston taxpayer, it does cost me as a federal taxpayer. That’s a distinction without much of a difference, except that ire at Boston mayor Wu is misplaced in that she didn’t allocate these federal dollars.
Without taking a firm position on whether the program is a good deal or not, I still need to point out that any argument that it’s “free” or “costs the taxpayers nothing” is intellectually dishonest.
Plenty of people who can't
Plenty of people who can't afford to buy a house also vote.
Making this available to
Making this available to anybody over 60 without income or disability qualification seems kind of sus.
people above 60 are very
people above 60 are very dependent on cars
Do you think people over 60
Do you think people over 60 with a net worth above $10 million should be eligible for these vouchers? The affordability of e-bikes wouldn’t seem to be a significant factor in how they get around.
Means testing bureaucracy
Do you really think people over 60 with a net worth above $10 million are going to spend their time trying to score a discount on an e-bike? If they want one they will already have the most expensive model.
I think turning the application process into a tax return will just prevent a lot of people who need a voucher from even trying to get one.
The means testing is already there
The means testing is already there: there are income qualifications to participate. They’re just waived for people over 60. Eliminating that waiver wouldn’t increase the bureaucratic burden of this program at all.
not exactly
income qualified participants get $1200 rebate
people over 60 that are above qualifying income get $800.
I don't care
Stop it with the Hillary imitation. I'd rather these fictitious random and rare millionaires not be clogging the roads with heavily subsidized cars.
You think you are fighting some sort of class war, but do the math, silly.
Either that or "nice try derailing the greater good with nonsense rhetoric about a nonissue".
Are they?
@Bob Leponge: You seem like a guy who would know what income-eligible adult (at or below 40% AMI) would mean in real money. Help a brother out? I don't have a clue.
Read it again
What does “fits at least one of the criteria” mean to you?
There is no income eligibility for people over 60
That rebate is $800. income
That rebate is $800. income eligible people can get $1200
At or below 40% AMI feels too
At or below 40% AMI feels too strict. Ebikes are really expensive.
This
Even more expensive when you consider the ebike rebate can only be used at a limited pool of local stores (read: where it will cost multiple thousands of dollars) instead of online, where basic models can now be bought for under $1000 or less.
I am concerned about this.
I am concerned about this.
Lectrics sell for $800. That is the obvious entry level.
What does that mean in real money?
Does anybody have an actual dollar amount for that phrase?
https://letmegooglethat.com/
https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=boston+ami
Hi Bob
Thanks for that @Bob Leponge.
Now I know 50 percent below AMI in Boston means under $57.000 dollars. I qualify with two criteria. It's still a lottery though...
Regular bikes?
My only complaint is that the city should also include vouchers for regular bikes.
A standard bike is cheaper, more dependable, easier to repair, and easier to move indoors for storage.
I would expect that most people who cannot afford an e-bike on their own will often lack a secure and easily accessible storage space for it. I can carry either my commuter or my mountain bike up multiple flights of winding stairs to my apartment. I wouldn't want to try wrestling a heavier and more awkward e-bike through there.
(Also, before anyone suggests locking an e-bike outside overnight, DON'T. Someone will spot it, return with whatever they need to defeat your lock, and steal your new ride.)
Exactly! Safe accessible bike storage is for many people, …
… as big a problem as the high cost of an ebike.
That was my first thought when reading this article. Without a practical place to keep an ebike, there is no point in having one.
I like this program but it needs to go further in helping seniors, the low income and the disabled to get bike storage too. And not just for ebikes. For regular bikes as well.
The battery needs to be UL
The battery needs to be UL certified.
Radcycle has new batteries that are safer.
What is the ratio of bike
What is the ratio of bike headline to comments ratio on this site?
Calculate it yourself
And share with us the insight it gives you when you know the magic number.
this one has bikes AND the mayor
which naturally means the ratio is 1 to roughly over 9000
Will there be a fingerprint or eye scan controls
So that only the designated person is able to use the bike and not friends, family or other household members?
I hate to be that guy
I hate to be that guy but this is my concern.. or the bikes just will be sold.
A few years a local non profit wanted to give away laptop computers to low income families to close the digital divide. Nice idea, right?
Outside of the fact that the total sum of $ allocated wasn't a lot, so the laptops they purchased were the sub 500 dollar ones that shatter with one swift drop to the floor.
But nothing was tracked. You applied, were selected, and told to show up and be given a laptop. No questions asked. And no tracking. Once the device was given to that person it was good as gone.
Several years later, none of those laptops existed anymore, in fact many of them ended up on Facebook and ebay being sold for cash.
Sorry folks but when you are low on cash and have a high priced item... its very tempting to just sell it for the cash. Pay a bill or have food on the table vs having a laptop. We know what people will do when hard up. Its a sad truth.
What should have been done is sink the money into a high tech lab for everyone to share. Yup you can't take it home, but a lab ensures it will be there all the time and maintained properly. (because we all know those sub 500 dollar laptops, if not sold, were broken within a year or two so what good is a broken laptop now?)
I don't think you really
I don't think you really looked into this. EBAY is very market driven. Those netbooks were going for $50 or less.
But every year millions of work laptops go to waste (15" Lattitude).
A central lab is not a good alternative…
… for the same reasons that using the computers at the library doesn’t work for everyone. Mobility issues, open hours issues, wait times and time limitations are a few.
Does anyone else cringe at
Does anyone else cringe at the thought of more e-bikes being driven by people who don’t even understand the cycling rules of the road?
Somewhat less...
...than I am by more cars being driven by people who don't even understand the driving rules of the road.
You mean drivers who might switch…
… to bikes?
No, I don’t cringe. It’s well worth the trade off. And ex drivers will soon learn how sharing the road, etc works because then it will be to their benefit to know these things.