With law clarified, NYC may soon see electric bike share
NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - In less than a month, one might find 75-pound electric bicycles like the ones we encountered at JUMP Bikes headquarters in Brooklyn, Friday, cruising at 20 mph on this city's streets and available to rent (at $2 for 30 minutes and 7 cents a minute after that) from this city's bike racks.
"We find our riders actually go two and a half or more miles on average per trip," JUMP Vice President of Marketing Rikin Diwan said.
Based in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, JUMP created its first pedal-assist bicycle last year, launching electric bike-share systems in San Francisco, Sacramento, Washington, D.C., and other markets, while those caught riding any e-bike in New York faced a $500 fine and the possibility of losing their bicycle.
"New York City just yesterday cleared up a lot of ambiguity that exists regarding e-bikes," Diwan said.
On Thursday, the city announced it planned to legalize Class 1 e-bikes starting at the end of July.
"There's too many cars," Diwan said. "There's too much congestion. People don't want to go subway."
The now-legalized Class 1 electric bikes have no throttle on the handle bars like the still-illegal Class 2 electric bikes. Instead, their motor only kicks in while the rider pedals.
"While you're pedaling, there's a smooth boost to help you along," Diwan said, "make sure you can go up hills, make sure you don't sweat."
JUMP and 11 other companies now wait to hear which of their products the city will accept into an e-bike share pilot program.
"Our bikes, they're called lock-to," Diwan said. "They don't need to be returned to a hub. They can be returned to any bike rack."
JUMP believes its independence from docking stations potentially sets it apart from other candidates — while JUMP teams will have to roam the city tracking down bikes and recharging batteries to their full 40-mile range.
"This way you can actually explore more parts of the city without being tied to the infrastructure Citi Bike or other systems have," Diwan said.
The city hopes to double its number of cyclists in the next two years.