[...] Zoll, Bicycle and Pedestrian Manager for the Pima County, Arizona Department of Transportation

The following map of hotels on las vegas strip piece is a guest post by Matthew Zoll, the Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Manager for Pima County, Arizona. Matthew s piece describes his experience purchasing and owning an electric bike in Tucson, Arizona. We will have more and more pieces dedicated to e-bikes in the coming weeks and months after learning about lots of the great e-bike technology at Interbike . Additionally, we will have some future posts about utility cycling in the Tucson area. In the meantime, please enjoy Matt s piece!
After 18 years of commuting by bike in the heat in Tucson, I decided in 2008 to try out a new approach. A friend had introduced me to electric bikes , which I always thought were not much more than an oddity and just a great way to cheat as a bike rider. How could I let my compatriots down by wimping out and going electric?
But then one day I realized it was the commute home in the heat of the summer that was getting to be a real drag, especially because I always commuted the four and a half miles to work each way in my office clothes (change clothes to cycling gear sometimes but still didn t find it quite cool enough). map of hotels on las vegas strip Little did I know that my new approach was going to be a nice little map of hotels on las vegas strip life-changer, or at least commute-changer.
I d been keeping an eye on various electric bikes and in summer 2008 a new bike became available. I called the shop owner and asked if I could try it out. He very generously offered map of hotels on las vegas strip for me to use the bike for a week, given in part it was the first of this make that he had gotten into his shop and he wanted someone to test it out.
The next day it hit about 96 degrees and after riding the bike home I immediately called the shop owner and said I ll take it. I was surprised and pleased by the fact that with this bike I could pedal very easily and cruise map of hotels on las vegas strip along at about 20 mph, keeping around 10 degrees cooler than a regular bike due to the fact I wasn t exerting myself (boy I didn t feel guilty about cheating!).
I call the bike a hybrid electric because the other part of the hybrid is me, although it s really the lithium ion battery and electric motor doing 90% of the work. This one s a pedal-assist which means you have to turn the pedals but can do so lightly to move it along.
Within about two months map of hotels on las vegas strip after buying the bike, gas prices spiked. For the heck of it, I decided to figure out how many miles I could ride on $4 worth of electricity, about the price of a gallon of gas at the time. When I ran the numbers I couldn t believe the results, so I asked a much-smarter friend map of hotels on las vegas strip if he could double check them and he confirmed what I found out: I could travel 1,200 miles on $4 worth of electricity. And no that s not a typo.
So in two years I ve used the bike an average map of hotels on las vegas strip of about 5 months of the year from mid May through mid October on a pretty map of hotels on las vegas strip continuous basis for commuting, going to the grocery store with a bike trailer, and other utilitarian trips. I typically don t use it more than a half-dozen times between November and May when instead I use my other bike(s). In early summer this year I turned over 3,000 miles on the electric, almost exactly two years since buying it. And I ve spent about $10 in electrical costs for that 3,000 miles.
If I utilize the common average for the personal cost of driving a car, which is around 50 cents a mile excluding external costs such as pollution, I ve just paid off the $1,500 cost of the bike (this is assuming of course the bike displaces the need to own a car or to own a second one). So from here on it s a free ride! Actually, not quite; in about two or three years from now I ll likely need to replace the battery, which should cost around $400. But by then I ll have essentially earned another $1,500 or so by riding the bike instead of having to use a car, so the battery replacement cost will be quite manageable.
So besides essentially cooling off the hot summer, the electric bike has a few other advantages. I tended to drive to work a few times a month before getting the bike, but in the past two years I ve driven to work only four times total. The bike s a lot of fun, and because of that you just can t not ride it. You ll avoid the need for putting expensive miles on your vehicle or even perhaps having to own one at all.
With the BP spill, oil use is on many persons minds and perhaps their consciences too. Besides reducing our over-reliance on a substance that can have devastating impacts on the planet and our lives, when we use non-petroleum forms of travel including electric map of hotels on las vegas strip bikes we can also reduce our dependence on oil supplies that in large part come from dictatorial countries.
Electric map of hotels on las vegas strip bikes can be used easier by persons who may have bad knees or other disabilities that prevent or limit them from riding conventional bikes. For persons who just won t consider biking to work because of the sweat factor, this deals with that issue very well. And mid-day meetings away from the office, even in summer, are a breeze to get to on the electric.
I love my new electric hybrid, a.k.a. map of hotels on las vegas strip Cadillac bike. It s a smooth ride, cooler in the summer and easier on the body with long commutes. Mine has three assist options, so I can choose to work harder or let the bike take up more effort all with the joy of pedaling required.
The electric map of hotels on las vegas strip bike solves map of hotels on las vegas strip many of the challenges associated with commuting by bike. It keeps you from getting sweaty when you re headed to work or to a meeting, it helps you when you re tired and commuting home after a long day, it helps you carry a lot more stuff, and it s fun so you ride it more often!
Matthew Zoll s Biography: Originally map of hotels on las vegas strip from Honolulu, Hawaii, Matthew Zoll is the Bicycle map of hotels on las vegas strip and Pedestrian Program Manager for Pima County. Since its inception in 2002, this program has been successful in bringing in over $10.4 million in federal funding map of hotels on las vegas strip to the region and leveraging an additional $14.8 million in local funding for bicycle and pedestrian safety projects and programs.
Matt manages a variety of projects including two federal map of hotels on las vegas strip Transportation Enhancement projects, the Pima County-Tucson Safe Routes to School Program and the Pima County-Tucson Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety and Education Program. Together these projects total over $1.2 million in local and federal funds. More information on various projects and programs managed by the Bike and Pedestrian Program can be found at bikeped.pima.gov .
I ve been riding an electric to work for the past two months. There s no way I could ride a regular bike I d be sweaty and hot when I got to work and my biking strength is nowhere near where it needs to be to ride (I actually learned to ride at 21 prior to that I d been told I d never ride because of a childhood neuromuscular disease.)
While looking for an e-bike, I stopped at a local bike shop that I usually love and asked them. They said we don t work with e-bikes. map of hotels on las vegas strip For that money you should map of hotels on las vegas strip just hire a coach. Won t be shopping there any more
Great article! I m a biologist with an interest in sustainability. After seeing my first scooter-style ebike I fell in love with the concept. Now, in addition to teaching, I m selling ebikes! I started with scooter-style ebikes but am moving more into the pedal-assist style. For both types I m focusing on the Veloteq brand a small player, but with great bikes. I d love to help anyone anywhere in choosing an ebike.
The way I estimated cost was to look at the current drawn by the recharger in amps, multiplied map of hotels on las vegas strip by 120 volts (the line current) and the time to recharge in hours, then divided by 1,000. This gives kilowatt-hours consumed to recharge; map of hotels on las vegas strip then multiply by the electricity rate at approximately 11 cents per kilowatt-hour with taxes, etc.
@Drew yes, I know what you mean that some bike shops are somewhat resistant to selling e-bikes. I hope this will change with time, as more and more shops recognize how useful e-bikes can be. Actually, compared to many expensive high-end bikes, e-bikes are actually quite reasonable!
[...] Zoll, Bicycle and Pedestrian Manager for the Pima County, Arizona Department of Transportation, converted to a hybrid electric bike (he calls it a hybrid, because map of hotels on las vegas strip he uses his own energy as well as electricity) a couple of years [...]
[...] 3,000 miles of commuter use on his electric bicycle in Tuscon Arizona. From his article over at Utility map of hotels on las vegas strip Cycling, Mathew reviewed the energy use calculations for us in the comment section: The way I estimated [...]
Since 2003 when I set out to spread the word around that solar and wind transportation is something that is a viable map of hotels on las vegas strip way to save in gas emissions and costs as well as minimizing noise pollution map of hotels on las vegas strip and toxic emissions. I first built a Hybrid electric bicycle and rode it for the first time to the top of the 10,005 ft Haleakala Volcano on Maui to the creator rim in about 2 hours and 40 minutes in the Cycle To The Sun bicycle ride in 2003 to prove that it can be done on solar power and leg power in record time. The batteries were charged map of hotels on las vegas strip from the solar panels and a small wind turbine at my home in Napili, Maui. Since then Segway legislation made motorized bicycles illegal. For the last 4 years of Electric bicycle legislation in Hawaii this is the first year that the bill has made it to the Senate to be heard in the transportation committee on this Monday 3-19-2012 in which Kalani English is the Chair. Ironically Senator English did not hear this bill two years in a row when he was the chair of the transportation committee in the house after the bill passed all the other house committees unanimously.
Reliable, efficient, affordable – all these words could be used to describe longtime Napili resident Randy Draper's new invention – a simple, long–lasting solar powered electric motor attached to an ordinary bike frame.
The bikes can go "up to 20 miles per hour, create no pollution, are totally silent, can go up any hill, are simple to repair, and the batteries can be recharged with energy from two things we have an abundance of here on Maui – sun and wind," Ran