5,000 Kilometres

Two years ago, I bought an e-bike to help with my longer suburban bike commute. This week I cycled my 5,000th kilometre with it. It’s fair to say the bike has been a good investment.

In 2020, after living for nearly a decade in walkable, urban areas, my partner and I moved to the Ottawa suburbs, bought a car, had a baby, and settled into our new community just as many others do. At first we tried without a car but it quickly became clear that having one would make our lives tremendously easier in an environment designed around the automobile.

But despite my wife and I both commuting regularly to work and needing to drive to other locations regularly, we still own just one car. With the average cost of car ownership exceeding $16,000 per year in Canada we have a strong financial motivation to keep it that way.

First I bought a lower-quality e-bike for my wife, thinking that she’d enjoy the added assistance when we went for rides. Little did I know that I’d actually be the one using it the most, appreciating how it carried me at speed, with ease over long distances. So in 2023, I invested: I spent $3,000 on an e-bike with quality features like a mid-drive motor, built-in lights and fenders, and a sturdy, step-thru, upright frame.

It’s fair to say that everything you’ve heard about e-bikes applies to me: I use it for longer trips that I wouldn’t have cycled otherwise, it gets me to work faster than driving, I get moderate exercise in the process, and I’ve never shown up to work sweaty (walking up the stairs after I’ve reached the office is the most out-of-breath I get on my commute). Outside of work, it’s been an incredible bonding opportunity with my daughter as I cruise around with her to the beach, the park, the library, and the museum all without huffing and puffing.

In just two years with it (cycling from April to November because I don’t want the bike to be destroyed by winter) I have cycled 5,000 kilometres. That’s 70 km per week, or 10 km per day on average. When I got the bike I was commuting 17 km to work in about 45 minutes; with my latest job I commute 11 km in 30 minutes to downtown Ottawa, a commute that by car would take at least that with congestion and by transit takes 40-45 minutes door-to-door. Accounting for bike depreciation, accessories, and maintenance, that’s a cost to me of $0.40 per kilometre, compared to a driving cost of $0.70 per kilometre. Some look at the price tag of an e-bike and see an expensive toy; I look at it and see a much cheaper alternative to a second car.

I’ve become a believer in the power of e-bikes – especially in the suburbs. If I were still living downtown where most of my trips were less than 5 kilometres, I probably never would have bought one. But when most major destinations are at least 5 kilometres away, the e-bike shines. My experience is backed by countless research studies that show e-bikes reduce carbon footprints, increase exercise, induce mode shift, and are worthwhile investments for public subsidies.

And things are only just getting started. Ottawa’s 2022 travel survey identified that 4% of Ottawa households own an electric bike (25,000 households), that e-bikes made up nearly 1 in 10 cycling trips (5,000 daily trips), and that the average e-bike trip (2.9km) is 40% farther than the average regular bike trip (2.1km). Every the number of e-bikes will increase.

What will our transportation landscape look like when 1 in 10 households owns one, and when e-bikes make up 25% of bike trips? How will our travel patterns change, especially in suburban areas previously thought unbikeable?

The e-bike revolution is well underway.