Why You Should Buy an Electric Bike
It is no exaggeration to say that electric bikes are the future. They are clean, environmentally friendly, and they don't need to be plugged in for them to work. With an electric bike, you can just charge it at home or on the go with a battery pack. The first electric bikes were expensive and heavy, but now they are becoming more affordable and lighter. The market for electric bikes is booming. With the trend gaining more popularity in recent years, many people may ask why should I buy an electric bike?
Electric bikes are more affordable than ever before, and they have more features than ever before too. The market for electric bikes is booming because of all these reasons and more! If you are still hesitating whether to buy an electric bike. Here are 4 reasons why you should.
1. Environmental benefits
There are many reasons why you should buy an electric bike. One of the most compelling reasons is the environmental benefits. Since nowadays green marketing has been so trendy, many people care more about consumption in an environmentally friendly way. Electric bikes are a lot more environmentally friendly than other transportations such as cars, which means they don’t emit any harmful gases, such as carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide.
Meanwhile, one thing you want to notice is that there are many other kinds of pollutions in modern cities. In addition to the air pollution which we are familiar with, there are also light and sound pollution. But the first thing you will notice when you get on a bike is the lack of noise. You are not going to have to deal with the frustration of sitting at a stoplight and hearing cars honk or having your ears ring after riding in heavy traffic. Your bike will be much quieter than any other mode of transportation that is available on the market today. It produces almost zero sound pollution, which is beneficial for modern day cities.
If you are looking for a way to reduce your carbon footprint, then an electric bike is right for you! Electric bikes are much more environmentally friendly than most other method of transportation out there, and much more convenient at the same time. They produce very little emissions, which means they don't contribute to air pollution or global warming.
2. Economic Benefits
Another main reason you should buy an electric bike is because of the economic benefits, one of which is the cheap price. An electric bike is a lot cheaper than a car. It is cheaper to buy, maintain and run.
Electric bikes cost an average of $2,000 in the United States of America. A car is typically over $7,000 for the cheapest option. Electric bikes can be used for short distances and are more environmentally friendly than cars because they don’t emit any pollution into the air, and they don’t need any fossil fuels to operate them.
What’s more, in big cities like New York, parking can be extremely expensive, and it is often very hard to find parking spot. And if you park in somewhere not supposed to, the fine would even be heartbreaking. So, most New Yorker will not drive in the city. But even the subway ride can be as annoying. However, an E-bikes, on the other hand, solves all the problems and can provide you the convivence to travel in the city without getting on the crowded subway.
Except all above, maintaining an electric bike is very economic as well. An electric bike can be charged in a few hours from your home outlet or from public charging stations that you can find in most cities across America today. And the cost of charging the electric bike battery is extremely cheap comparing to charging electric car or refill the gas.
One thing people may concern is that some may think a car is a necessity for American household. But even if you own a car, you could still get an E-bike for shorter distance trips. Just as I mentioned above, you can save money on parking and cur spending on gas. What’s more, if someone in your family is using the car, the other person could still use the E-bike.
3. Time benefits
The third benefit of buying an electric bike is time saving. Electric bikes are a great alternative for people who want to save time. With electric bikes, you can save time on your way to public transportation, parking your car, and refueling your car.
Compare to traditional bikes, E-bike can be much faster with less pedaling. A study conducted in 2017 showed that the median speed of electric bicycles was 23.1 km/h and that of traditional bicycles was 18.4 km/h. Therefore, the average speed of electric bicycles is 21% faster than that of traditional bicycles. This is equivalent to saving 21% of transportation time in a year.
For example, it takes 30 minutes to drive to work and 45 minutes to drive back. The traffic is heavy. In general, 1 hour and 15 hours of transportation are required each day. About 25 hours per month, 300 hours per year! By investing in electric bicycles, this number has dropped to 237 hours per year. It saves 63 hours and almost two weeks of work are on your schedule. What will you do with your new free time?
Not to mention, in addition to saving money, switching from a car to an electric bicycle can also improve your physical activity level. This will help achieve the recommended 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week.
4. Health Benefits
Electric bikes also provide a lot of health benefits because they are much easier on your body when you ride them. You won’t have to worry about getting a sore back and neck from sitting in one spot for hours on end while pedaling. Plus, they require less effort to pedal because they have electric assistance systems that will do some of the work for you.
A recent study, which was recently published in the Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives journal, followed over 10,000 adults found that e-bike riders ended up slightly outperforming pedal bike riders in terms of total weekly exercise. One reason of this is because people on an electric bicycle have to pedal harder to get the bike moving. Also, the study found that e-bike users traveled for longer periods of time, so their increase in physical activity was greater to that of regular bicycle users as you burn about 25% more calories on an electric bike than you would on a regular bicycle, which is the equivalent of up to an hour of moderate exercise each day.
Also, when you ride E-bikes, the motor on it can help you pedal and go faster. A person can reach speeds of up to 20 miles per hour with an electric bike, while on a regular bike, they can only go about 10 miles per hour on average, which can further result in more calories burned. The average person can expect to burn more than 400 calories in an hour of riding which is more than enough to counteract any weight gain that might occur from the extra calories burned by pedaling.
For those of who wanted a community when working out, you don't have to worry about it with E-bikes.E-bike rider groups are a lot more common than you might think. They are a great way to get involved in the community while also getting some exercise. The first thing you need to do is find an E-bike rider group near you. The best place to start is by typing “E-bike rider group” into the search bar on Facebook or Google. People in the group sometimes organize E-bike riding activities on holidays. And both the membership of the groups and E-bike-riding event are usually free. So, without paying any money you could still go out and get the community.
With all the benefit listed above, hope to answer your questions about whether to buy an electric bike.