Portland's Eneloop: The Mayor's Perspective

I recently had an opportunity to talk to Mayor Sam Adams about his office's new ebike. As you may recall, Sanyo recently donated one of their Eneloop ebike models to the Mayor's office (they also donated one to the Mayor of Salem). Since hearing that, I've been curious as to whether the bike is getting much use and what his staffers think of the bike.

Mayor Adams reports that his staff really likes the bike, and that it enables him to regularly ride his commute in work clothes (suit and tie, in his case) without the necessity of a shower at the end. It's difficult to see in the photo, but he was also wearing a helmet from Nutcase, which is based in Portland.

Additionally, the Mayor pointed out that if more people were aware of electric bikes, bikes "would easily pick up 10% in mode share". As Portland looks to expand bike share into the "interested but concerned", ebikes can help address a lot of those concerns.

All city employees also have access to the A2B ebikes in the city motor pool as well.

Metro also recently added an electric bike to their motor pool. In several brief conversations with test riders during the recent Bike There! map launch, riders reported that they found the ebike to be a viable alternative to checking out a car to go to a meeting downtown.

It will be interesting to hear more long-term feedback on fleet electric bikes.

One Woman's Year of the eBike

Local blogger April Streeter writes on Treehugger.com:

"My Year of "E"
That's why I decide to document my first year of e-biking, to see if a) I lose or gain any weight b) ride more or less than I habitually have done (imperfectly measured by a rise or fall in my Zipcar bills, and c) find a noticeable increase in my electric bill from frequent charging of the bike (estimated to be just a few cents per charge, which takes 3.5 hours).

My starting weight was 115. My first week of biking I rode 33.4 miles. Zipcar miles = 0. Happiness factor = high."

Its great to see another ebiker out there - keep us posted on your year of E!

Recent eBike coverage from City Hall

Three exciting stories coming out of City Hall about ebikes

1) The Bureau of Transportation's Smart Trips Business blog featured an area ebiker (ahem) and discussed the future of electric vehicles.

2) In an unrelated post, the Mayor's office discussed ebikes, asking if they were a viable alternative to a local car trip. Of course, I think so!

3) And finally, the press machine that is Sanyo has donated on of their Eneloop bikes to City Hall for use as a fleet vehicle.  I'll be interested to see how it will work in a fleet environment - will it be a smashing success, or languish somewhere in a closet, with no care taken to keep the battery charged?  Come on City Hall'ers - make the leap!
Press Release
Better coverage from BikePortland.org.