E-bike safety: How to safely ride and charge your battery

CATHY WURZER: You've probably noticed a surge in popularity of e-bikes recently. You see them all over the place. Sales of electric bikes went up by 400% since the year 2020. With a recent effort to launch a state rebate system for e-bikes in Minnesota, they've been an even hotter item.

Another e-bike story in the headlines, the potential safety risks of owning and riding e-bikes. In New York City, in 2023, e-bike batteries have been the source of 255 fires, 150 injuries, and 18 deaths. Riding them has also proven to be a bit more dangerous. A recent report from the national transportation safety board concluded that fatalities associated with e-bike ridership have also increased exponentially.

Bike Minnesota Deputy Director Angela Olson is here to talk about how we can stay safe. Angela, thanks for joining us.

ANGELA OLSON: Thank you so much for having me, Cathy. I'm so excited to talk e-bikes with you.

CATHY WURZER: Well, I've had my first e-bike ride. That was what, last year, by riding with some friends to the Minnesota State Fair. It was a lot of fun. Are there different types of e-bikes, or you get one e-bike, you pretty much have the same one?

ANGELA OLSON: Well, [INAUDIBLE] I always like to say that for every [INAUDIBLE] there is a bike. And in Minnesota, we have four different classes of e-bikes. So those classes kind of categorize the componentry and the speed of each types of bike.

But I would say, for me, I have two e-bikes. I have one that I call my tank, that I ride in the winter, and then I have my kind of all-year-round one. So it really kind of depends on your needs.

CATHY WURZER: OK, so what do you like about e-bikes?

ANGELA OLSON: I a lot of things about e-bikes. I think that people really deserve to get to where they're going safely and to have fun. I personally like e-bikes. I ride an e-bike. I ride a non-electric bike, and I do drive a car sometimes.

And on my e-bike, I'm not a very fast or strong rider. So for every pedal rotation that I put in that bike, I get about a pedal and a half back. It really helps if I'm going up a hill or [INAUDIBLE] a strong headwind because I have some knee issues, and that's really helpful.

But also, I can go farther. I can travel more miles on my e-bike in a shorter amount of time. [INAUDIBLE] I can choose to [INAUDIBLE] a car. A really viable option to take by bike. And for every mile that I don't drive a car, it's a 1 to 1 [INAUDIBLE] vehicle. And--

CATHY WURZER: Oh, Angela, I have to say, Angela, you are-- Angela, I'm sorry to interrupt you. You are breaking up terribly, and I can't understand a thing you're saying, so. No, no, no. It's not your fault. We have some technical gremlins here. What we're going to do is, we're going to call you right back on your phone if that's OK. And I want to get you on the air on the phone.

In the meantime, as we're calling Angela back, in case you're just tuning in and wondering, oh, shoot, that sounds like a really good conversation. Angela, of course, is the Bike Minnesota deputy director. We were talking to her about e-bikes, e-bike safety, and of course, people are talking about e-bikes. There's the state rebate system for e-bikes that was just launched recently, and it was quite popular. So that's why we wanted to talk to Angela. I believe Angela is back on the line. Hi Angela. Sorry about this.

ANGELA OLSON: Is better. no, not your fault.

CATHY WURZER: There you go.

ANGELA OLSON: Thanks for pivoting with me.

CATHY WURZER: Absolutely. OK, so we were just talking about your e-bike. You've got two of them.

ANGELA OLSON: Yes.

CATHY WURZER: One is your tank that you that you ride in the winter.

ANGELA OLSON: Uh-huh.

CATHY WURZER: OK, so I noticed when I was on that e-bike, that was a person who had let me ride his e-bike to the state fair, it was kind of interesting because it's like you didn't-- you could put as much physicality into it as you wanted, but then there was this little oomph that kind of came with it

ANGELA OLSON: Yeah.

CATHY WURZER: Which I thought was a really interesting.

ANGELA OLSON: Yeah, somebody once described it to me as an e-bike can really take the challenge out of riding a bike. And of course, you can make it as hard as you want to. You can turn the assist all the way down. You can increase your gearage.

But it's really nice to have that extra power behind you if you're going up a hill. I was saying before, I have some joint issues, so having that little assist when I'm going up a hill or hitting a headwind really helps me a lot. And it can be an incentive to go farther, right? On my e-bike, I can travel a farther distance in a shorter amount of time, and it makes it a viable choice for me. If I want to drive to Saint Paul, I live in Minneapolis, I might choose to drive my e-bike, instead of my car, because it's not going to take me a super duper long time.

CATHY WURZER: So with all these people riding e-bikes and their popularity, I'm wondering about the safety issues with the--

ANGELA OLSON: Yeah,

CATHY WURZER: --the lithium-ion batteries. What is going on with that?

ANGELA OLSON: Yeah, that's a great question. Like you mentioned, e-bike purchases have gone up 400% since the beginning of the COVID pause in 2020. And with the growing popularity, of course, we see some of these instances come up. Some of these are really tragic, like you mentioned in New York City.

I think that it's important to remember that any battery carries some amount of risk with it, right? We have lithium-ion batteries in our laptops and some of our phones. So a battery itself always carries some level of risk. Now, there are things that we can do to mitigate that risk on a personal level. And I think there is research that indicates that some of those fires are caused by, perhaps, an e-bike that is equipped with a battery that's not designed for it. So it's really important to use the battery that is designed and manufactured for your bike.

It's really important to purchase your e-bike from a reputable manufacturer and to purchase a e-bike where the battery has a UL certification that ensures its safety. So you also can't-- just like you can't plug your laptop charger into your cell phone, you have to use the right charger that goes with your e-bike, right? Because the voltage is going to be different.

So using all of those things can help mitigate the risk, but it really doesn't carry a much higher risk than most of the other lithium-ion batteries that we use in our everyday lives. So I think it's really tempting for people to be able to purchase a really inexpensive e-bike from a different country or overseas. But it's important to remember that those e-bikes might not be under the same type of scrutiny or regulations that bikes sold in the US from reputable manufacturers are.

CATHY WURZER: OK.

ANGELA OLSON: And then, also just using some-- you don't want to plug your e-bike in underneath your old Christmas tree overnight, right? So plugging it in in a space where you can see it, that's not-- you know, to help mitigate that risk. And also leaving your battery charged in for a super long time, over charges the battery and over time, reduces its capacity to hold a charge.

So there are definitely things that we can do to help mitigate the risk. And a huge part of that is purchasing from a reputable manufacturer.

CATHY WURZER: Got it. So getting back to riding e-bikes.

ANGELA OLSON: Yes,

CATHY WURZER: You can kind of zip along on these e-bikes.

ANGELA OLSON: Mm-hmm.

CATHY WURZER: Is that the issue behind some of these accidents that we're seeing?

ANGELA OLSON: Sure, yeah, so a big concern that we hear at the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota a lot about e-bikes is speed. And speed is a really important thing to consider when we're looking at safety. The faster we go on any vehicle, whether it's an e-bike, a non-electric bike, or a car, the more risk we're taking on. Our stopping power gets longer, our ability to control and maintain control changes.

And so I always love to frame these conversations in looking at e-bikes within transportation as a whole. So e-bikes can go up to 20 miles an hour with an assist, for a class one and class two, or up to 28 miles assist on a class-three bicycle. But cars can go much faster than that. So it's really important to remember that on the road, when we're traffic, e-bikes are not the fastest vehicle out there.

Another thing is when you're driving a bicycle, the biggest risk that you pose is to yourself. So there's incentive for us to drive our bikes safely and carefully when we're biking. 20 miles an hour is the average, is the speed of a class-two bike, which is the most common e-bike sold. And like I said, I'm not a very fast or strong biker, but 20 miles an hour on a non-electric bike is totally achievable, especially if you're on a really flat surface. So e-bikes aren't the only ones going that fast.

And again, we have to look at speed as a whole and where speed is happening the most is in car traffic. That isn't to say we don't have personal responsibility, right? So I always tell people, when you get a new vehicle, whether it's a car, an e-bike, or a non-electric bike it's a really good idea to take it to a parking lot, test it out, check all the different levels of assist, what does it feel like to stop and start, so that you can take the responsibility to drive your e-bike with caution and care so that your ride can be really safe and fun.

CATHY WURZER: And of course--

ANGELA OLSON: And again it's--

CATHY WURZER: And wear your helmet.

ANGELA OLSON: Yeah, go ahead. I'm a big proponent of helmets.

CATHY WURZER: Yes, yes, yes, yes, I am, too. So I mentioned the e-bike rebate process. Have about a minute left here now. There was the first-come, first-serve basis launch last month. And then my gosh, there were so many people that the site crashed. And I know they haven't put the site back up yet. Do you know about plans for rolling out this rebate program maybe later this summer?

ANGELA OLSON: So the Bike Alliance of Minnesota, we helped write and advocate for that bill, but we aren't responsible for the rollout. The department of revenue is the governing body. But if you go to our website, bikemn.org, we're giving people up-to-date information as we get it about when the rollout will occur again and when they'll try it.

And the good news, if we can look at a silver lining, is we know it doesn't work. And we know there's a big demand, which really proves that having equitable and fair access to these types of e-bikes is a really important thing for us to do. So keep an eye on our website. We'll give you all the update information that we have about it.

CATHY WURZER: OK. Happy biking, Angela. Thank you so much.

ANGELA OLSON: Thank you so much. You too, Cathy. Have a great day.

CATHY WURZER: You too. Angela Olson is the deputy director of the nonprofit Bike Minnesota.