And only a 141 million of those pay federal income taxes (at least in 2019 before a ton of them lost their jobs).

Unfortunately, because it is a tax rebate, people who don’t earn enough to pay income tax wouldn’t be able to benefit. 

It’s a tax rebate not a no-strings check. You can only collect tax rebates if you pay taxes, and a lot of people don’t have to pay taxes.

LOL, I thought we all stopped caring about federal spending 2 years ago.  Maybe instead of a check next quarter they can just send everybody an ebike. <- I agree with you, this is all sarcasm.  

My wife wanted one, mostly because holiday travel was a giant pain in the ass with a rental. Then I wound up stuck using it for my commute when I changed careers. When we open back up I’m ditching the car where I can in favor of a bike/commuter rail commute. I drive against traffic both ways and still spent 90 to 120…

Maybe he’s a skilled rider like the paperboy in “Better Off Dead.”

I’d be very afraid. I tried taking my e-bike onto a trail near a beach last summer—the wheels hit the sand and down I went. Lot of torque, not a lot of traction. Maybe the guy you saw had better tires.

I didn’t own a car until my mid thirties and never had a problem with hauling groceries. Similarly, most things you’d need to use a car’s cargo space for you probably ship at this point. I agree there are cargo concerns even with that consideration, but even so, that’s less of an argument than you think it is.

How is getting a bunch of e-bikes suddenly make us carbon neutral?  Wouldn’t it be more carbon neutral to only get e-bikes in the hands of people where it would become a carbon benefit?

There are only ~210M adults in the United States and even if they all could ride an ebike, wanted to ride an ebike, and had a place to actually store one, the short to mid term manufacturing capacity sets a significantly lower ceiling on the total cost of this.

Having lived in suburban areas all around the eastern seaboard, a lot of the increased bike lanes I’ve seen are never on useful paths and are almost entirely for leisure. The on road paths always end early and in weird spots, usually near highway corridors. Most of the suburban areas in the US (and really most US citie…

There is plenty of data to corroborate an increase in cycling alongside bike infrastructure growth. I took a bike ride this past weekend to a that wouldn’t of been possible a few years ago were it not for a new bike path on a bridge that opened in 2019. Cycling can’t prosper in a society that doesn’t invest in it.…

If, for example, a $1,000 e-bike came with a $1,000 tax credit, and you could use that e-bike to get to work reliably every day, it would be a great reason to spend money on a new bike.

You know a car costs a lot more than that, right?

That really depends on where you live. My wife an I moved to Portland, Oregon about 7 years ago and this is the first place in the 5 states that we have lived that has bike lanes Where we lived in AL and TN didn’t even have sidewalks so driving was the only option to get anywhere safely.

This is going to sound flippant, and I really don’t mean it that way. I think means testing should be avoided whenever practical.

Good suggestions. Might be worth renting one to try out for the day before committing a purchase.

The problem I see is more that there is insufficient bicycle suitable infrastructure and not necessarily purchase price.

I’m going to make a counter-point in that these types of incentives need to also benefit the middle and upper classes.

Sounds like a waste of money to mostly subsidize people’s hobbies.

In addition to the much lower MSRP cap Bradley recommends, I would add a maximum income of $45,000, a requirement that the bikes be legal to use in all bike lanes (where I am there are different classes and restrictions), and a primary residence within…

Saw a dude riding his e bike in Breckenridge this weekend. Had his skis strapped on and he was going to the hill I was waiting to see him hit the ground. Foot of snow and ice did a number on the streets