‘Independent, Fun, Relaxing’: Two Black Washingtonians On E-Bike Riding

At 70 years old, native Washingtonian Lester Austin zips all around the city on his electric bike. And when he says all around the city — he really means it.

“I live over by Costco, in Northeast D.C., and I can get on the Anacostia Trail,” Austin said. “I’m going to Anacostia Park, the ball fields over there, and I will take that all the way down to the Sousa, the new bridge. And I’ll cross over the new bridge and go down by Audi stadium.” 

Austin, who got his first e-bike in 2021 at his brother’s recommendation, said his rides let him experience the city up close and personal. When he explains his many routes,  stories are peppered with firsthand knowledge of different District neighborhoods’ past lives.

“I’ll head on down to Buzzard Point where the old Coast Guard office building used to be — and that’s now all high-rise apartments,” he said. “I’ll go behind the Wharf and ride around through all the different eateries down there, and bypass those and look in, and then I’ll take that down past the Wharf where the boats used to sit and they sell all the fish.”

After that, his wanderings take him to Haines Point, then back toward home, past the memorials on the National Mall and the African American History Museum, the Supreme Court building and Union Station. All told, his rides—which he takes several times a month—come out to about 15 to 25 miles each, he said. 

“In the car, you drive down the street, and you look, but on the bike you have an intimate relationship with what’s going on on the street,” Austin said.

Austin says his e-bike has replaced a lot of city trips that he used to take in his car, which he still has. But primarily he uses the bike for exercise—yes, he emphasized, it’s less exertion than you would need on a pedal-powered bike, but you can still get good exercise—and for sheer enjoyment. 

“I’ll take a bike, I’m out on it for about three or four hours, and then I come home… I’m not exhausted, I’m not sweating like a little pig,” he said. “It’s just independent, fun, relaxing.

Can E-Bikes Be the New Minivan?

Lora Nunn, a 48-year-old mom of two, has a somewhat different relationship with e-biking. She uses a cargo e-bike to take her kids, aged 7 and 10, on errands and to activities. But even though she uses the electric bike as a more practical vehicle than pleasure ride, Nunn said she still notices the same sense of increased closeness with the city that Austin described. 

“The kids kind of get to feel a little bit more connected to the world, traveling by the bike, than being in the car,” Nunn said. “[When] you’re in the car, you’re kind of closed off from the world. But when you’re on the bike, you’re kind of still with people, you can still talk to people.”

Nunn’s family, which also has a car, got the cargo e-bike, as well as a standard e-bike, during the pandemic. They were expensive purchases: $1875 for the cargo bike, and $1175 for the regular one. But Nunn said over time it’s started to save her household money on gas, parking, speeding tickets and car maintenance. 

“It’s really, really helped our bottom line to be on the bikes instead of in the car,” she said. “We’ve gone from filling the tank, like a couple of times a week, to—I think I get gas for the car maybe once a month now.”

The D.C. Council last month passed an e-bike subsidy bill aiming to address affordability and increase e-bike access. Once the D.C. Department of Transportation (DDOT) gets the rebate up and running, District residents eligible for programs like SNAP can receive up to $1,500 for a qualifying e-bike, among other rebates for e-bike expenses. Residents outside of the income qualifications can get half of that. 

Some of the details are still a little fuzzy, though, such as exactly when the program will start and whether buyers will be able to purchase bikes at a discount with the rebate, rather than having to pay upfront and wait for a tax credit later. 

Bike Lanes Can Make a Big Difference — And Not Just for Bikers

Rising gas prices and difficult parking both factored into Nunn’s family’s decision to get the e-bikes. So did the installation of new bike lanes on key roads around her Hill East home, including one that she could use to take the kids to school. 

Nunn said that if she’s taking her kids with her, she typically plans her routes so that she can stay in bike lanes as much as possible, even if that means taking a more circuitous path. When her kids ride bikes with her—everyone on regular, pedal-powered ones—the family sticks to protected lanes that provide physical barriers between them and cars on the road. 

Nunn loves to drive, but, like many people, finds driving and searching for parking time-consuming and frustrating in the city. She described biking, when the infrastructure is good, as “less stressful” than getting around by car 

“I have more flexibility,” she said. “I feel less trapped.” 

But Nunn has also seen how contentious fights around bike lanes and other infrastructure can get at the hyperlocal level. She goes to a lot of community meetings and stays highly involved in goings-on around her neighborhood and the city (recently, the Anacostia Watershed Society named her a 2023 Anacostia River Civic Spirit Hero). 

“There are things that trigger people’s concerns around gentrification, like, say, the word ‘dog park,’” Nunn said. “I think sometimes that biking also falls into that.”

The District has seen 242 deaths from traffic incidents since 2017, according to DDOT data, and 105 of them—43%—happened in Wards 7 or 8. Advocates say that bike infrastructure is an important tool in improving safety and reaching the city’s Vision Zero goal of having no traffic fatalities in the District. 

“One of the things I don’t think people really understand is the ways that bike infrastructure also helps pedestrians,” Nunn said. “It creates more buffers, and those buffers aren’t just keeping bikers safe. They’re also keeping pedestrians safe.”

Nunn said she thinks DDOT, and the District government generally, has missed opportunities to engage meaningfully with neighborhoods about how bike infrastructure can improve safety. Beyond that, she said, city residents may just need more time to see whether more biking could make a positive difference in their commutes and neighborhood life. 

“It’s gonna take a while for people to really fully feel the difference,” Nunn said. “But I definitely think that if a good chunk of people could easily get to the places they need to go, and do the things they need to do on a bike. And then as you see that kind of shift to more people on the bike and less people in cars, there’s just going to be an overall improvement in the traffic [and] parking craziness.”