District of North Vancouver Councilor Jordan Back is bringing a motion at an upcoming Council meeting to incentivize e-bikes.
E-bikes are game-changers, allowing people to ride further and more often, replacing car trips but they are not cheap, says Councillor Back.
Back says he is following the lead of the District of Saanich in asking DNV to explore an e-bike incentive pilot project in the district.
According to Back’s motion, the District of Saanich launched an E-bike incentive pilot program on October 12, 2021, to support Saanich residents with the purchase of an e-bike as an alternate mode of personal transportation.
The program targets 300 participants, with incentives that range from $350 to $1,600 based on the applicant’s household size and income.
Back says province has recently made e-bikes PST exempt, but deeper incentives are needed if governments at any level want people to buy an e-bike, which costs approximately $2,000.
Back says this would be a pilot program, with a fixed end date, so that DNV staff will be able to assess the results and decide if it is something that could be continued.
E-bikes have health and environmental benefits and they might help in reducing traffic on North Shore, he adds.
“As we try to tackle the No. 1 issue on the North Shore, which is often traffic congestion, we have to look at every idea that could be part of the solution,” Back says.
So now HOW dear Jordan will using MY ALREADY EXHORBITANT TAXES to fund MORE VEHICLES and SECOND vehicles in a household travelling on ever narrowing roadways supporting MORE DEDICATED BIKE LANES actually reduce traffic congestion anywhere ? Has the millions you have already seen any significant CO2 or traffic savings? Are the bike lanes now congested ?
This is classic green HOLY WORK ADVOCACY AT MY EXPENSE and nothing more. Do some arithmetic Jordan. If ALL THE CARS IN ALL THE LOWER MAINLAND were REMOVED FROM THE ROAD FOREVER the net CO2 savings would not amount to even a single coal fired electric plant of the type China is furiously building today at a pace that would shock us all. At best this electic bike proposal marginally enables China to benefit while continue while
What, Jordan, is the price per kg of CO2 savings of your holy work proposal? No information available. Further , there are already thousands of electric scooter and bike batteries decaying in landfills as the Chinese battery factories churn out replacement components and smelt ore.
I have that exact same bike (different colour) and child seat as the news photo. I take my daughter to pre school in upper Lynn valley from Lynnmour. Not a chance I would be able to do that hill without the pedal assist.
Bike usage and bike lanes have come a long way in the last ten years.
I think this is a great idea to help reduce some of the rush hour congestion. It won’t make a massive difference but every little bit counts.
No it doesnt. count. And what he proposes in dollars is NOT a ‘little bit’. I defy ONE of you green holy workers to come up with a Dollars per kg CO2 savings before spending a dime on your imagined solutions.
Personally, I believe housing unaffordability to be the number one issue with traffic chaos being one of the end results of miss-guided rezoning and developer/profit driven O.C.P. changes and densification that is destroying all sense of livability, with our beautiful North Van/North Shore left forever ruined.
Respectfully, to Mr. Back I suggest there are better ways to budget the expenditure of our property taxes. If e-bikes make sense, let the people buy them – on their own!
I bought an e-scooter for $1800.00 including taxes gets me across north vancouver for lots of MY, no room for the family :>( trips in summer as long as I dont have to carry too much – but honestly I wont be using it in the winter (or most of the fall or spring) call be wimpy but its cold out there.
ZoAnn ….
You say cold I say wet.
Of course A. Caldwell has nailed it insofar as OCP prescribed densification is the key driver of traffic, volume, not lack of public transit or battery bikes. I mean if the parking disruption and millions spent on bike lanes so far have done so little for traffic congestion that we now have to PAY people to use them then I think it is time to turf the transportation
In any other nearly empty country, such nonsense would be laughed out of the council . In ours… we follow the prescription of the UN and ICLEI, proully patting our own backs as we squander.
Again I challenge councilor BACK tor any other counsilor to provide us with a verified cost per kg CO2 of this or any other glory project before committing a dime like they should be doing for all expenditures.