the world in 2023.

That's about one e-bike for every 26 people

globally.

The level of ridership is almost doubled or more

every year since 2015.

And we see no, no, no slowing of that in the

years forward as we look at fuel prices increasing

and other challenges to transportation only

getting worse.

But despite the recent surge in popularity,

they've actually been around since the late

1800s. The first E-bike patent in the US was for

a product very similar to what you'd see today a

standard bicycle with a motor and a battery in

the triangular frame.

While it has been a fairly popular mode of

transportation in Europe, the pandemic

popularized it in the US. Being able to get

around easily in cities without strangers

breathing down your neck on public transportation

suddenly became an attractive proposition.

But one study found that more than 9 million

people have sought out medical attention from an

e-bike injury since 2000. Those injuries were

also more likely to be more severe than a

traditional bicycle and more likely to require

hospitalization. There were 53 deaths from

e-bikes in the U.S. between 2017 and 2021,

including pedestrians getting hit by e-bikes as

well as rider accidents.

Some think that that's because e-bikes are

regulated as bikes instead of motorcycles.

Under our jurisdiction, we regulate electric

bikes that can achieve an unassisted speed of no

more than 20 miles per hour with a motor that

has no more than one horsepower.

The keyword there is unassisted.

Some of these e-bikes can get up to 28 miles

per hour if the cyclist is pedaling with a

throttle.

On e-bikes were significantly related

with more serious injuries compared to

traditional pedal operated bicycles and

even compared to e-scooters.

While they are an efficient form of

micromobility, are they safe to use in a country

like the U.S. where infrastructure is largely

in favor of cars?

There are at least 200 ebike brands around the

world, and a variety of models have entered the

market over the last decade. Some are built

with specific work in mind, like food delivery.

Others were made for chauffeuring around your

little kids or designed to fold up if you have

limited space at home.

While some e-bikes are pedal assisted, others

can get going purely from the throttle.

The plethora of options have helped them grow in

popularity, and in the US they're actually being

bought more than electric and hybrid cars

combined.

You can build 400 rad power bikes with the same

amount of battery cells that goes into one large

electric SUV.

So in terms of a scalable solution, that's

also incredibly energy efficient.

E-bikes are the way to go.

That's my grandpa. He's the founder and chairman

of Rad Power Bikes, the largest e-bike company in

the US. You can also go about 40 miles per charge

on the average e-bike, which is enough for a few

days of commuting and getting around town in

the average city.

And a lot of our customers are also living

rurally and in suburban areas.

So Rad is about one third rural, one third

urban and one third suburban. And that might

surprise some people that think electric bikes

are just for people in the city.

And that's not the case.

And there's an abundance of environmental

benefits. A study found that an e-bike emits only

five grams of carbon for every mile traveled,

compared to about 100 grams per bus rider and

240 grams per person traveling by car.

I was literally researching cars.

I had a spreadsheet set up of all the ones I was

going to go test drive, but we were holding off

because after the move we didn't have enough

money to buy a car and we were looking at these

these electric cargo bikes and decided to buy

one.

Jason Slater is known for starting the YouTube

channel, not just bikes.

He's garnered over 850,000 subscribers for

talking about urban planning and chronicling

his life in Amsterdam, where he and his family

moved because they didn't want to live in a

car centric community.

I mean, they're expensive, but they're

still a heck of a lot cheaper than than buying

a car. And what we found with having two kids that

we basically did almost every trip we needed to

do.

And there's actually a lot of people like Jason

replacing their cars with e-bikes.

In more than 70% of RAD customers, their primary

reason for adopting an electric bike into their

life is to replace car Miles.

E-bikes are inherently going to be more

dangerous than regular bikes. Put simply, the

faster you're going, the more crashing will hurt.

E-bikes are three times more likely to result in

a hospitalization if an injury occurs compared to

traditional bikes.

In addition to the severity of personal

injuries, they're also about three times more

likely to be involved in a collision with a

pedestrian than a traditional bike.

Banning their use on sidewalks, age

restrictions and required helmets have

been suggested to combat these issues.

We do not, as the CPSC, regulate use, we regulate

the product, and individual jurisdictions

may in fact choose to impose requirements of

that nature. But for the CPSC, we're looking at

just the actual bike itself.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is,

however, able to regulate speed, which is

why Class one and Class two e-bikes are only

allowed to go 20 miles per hour unassisted in

the US. Beyond that, other national

regulations are almost nonexistent for e-bikes,

leaving it up to the localized jurisdictions.

Some states, like Alaska and Massachusetts, have

strict restrictions on e-bikes, essentially

classifying them as motor vehicles and

requiring an operator's license.

Others, like New York, require e-bike riders to

be at least 16 years old and 16 and 17 year old

riders are required to wear helmets.

Our products are for adults only, and we

recommend as also a national standard 16 plus

years of age for all of our models.

And we make that very clear in all of our

retail stores.

It's actually simple physics.

If if a car is traveling 45 or 40 miles an hour

and hit somebody, it's almost a certain

fatality. Whereas if that same car is

traveling just ten miles an hour or less, you've

got less than half that probability of a

fatality.

A lack of helmets and reckless driving could be

factors in the increase in injuries, but

excessive speed is frequently blamed for the

problem.

But in New York City, certainly the delivery

sector is driving some of this injury.

Literally, their incentive is to complete

as many deliveries as quickly as they can, and

that sometimes will sort of motivate them to

perhaps drive in an unsafe manner.

On top of the obvious dangers, there's also

been a significant amount of e-bike

batteries exploding.

In New York City alone.

The fire department has investigated over 170

e-bike related fires, which includes six

fatalities.

So we work with fire departments across the

country to investigate those issues.

And it's something that we have put a lot of

resources into.

Now, a lot of times it's hard to figure out after

the fact what exactly happened.

We also know that fires can result from

aftermarket changes in the battery or if

consumers use batteries or chargers that are not

recommended for that specific bike.

Because the new battery is often over $500, third

party options are frequently utilized,

which can more easily result in a fire or

explosion.

I find here in the Netherlands e-bikes are a

lot more heavily regulated so that there's

they're required to meet certain safety standards.

So we don't have problems here with, you

know, exploding batteries and stuff like

that.

Cyclists and e-bike riders alike argue that

the real issue with safety doesn't have to do

with e-bikes at all.

The cars are the greatest threat to other road

users, whether that's pedestrians, regular

cyclists or electric bikes.

And that's shown in all the safety numbers from

the National Highway Traffic Safety.

This is a known problem for many years.

It's being deliberately covered up by the

automotive industry, which has polluted our

earth and created all this road, frankly, risk

and fear. And our streets should go back to

the people.

In countries like China and the Netherlands,

infrastructure is often created to favor

cyclists. When bikers aren't competing with

cars, it immediately becomes much safer.

They didn't have to build any complicated,

expensive infrastructure or anything like that.

All they did was remove a lot or all of the car

traffic doesn't even need to be all of it,

just most of it.

And people will come out And I mean, that's

exactly what we saw in the Netherlands in the

1970s and 1980s.

In 2021, the Netherlands saw 80 e-bike fatalities

for its nearly 5 million e-bikes and 175 deaths

for people in its 8.7 million cars.

That's about 20% fewer fatal accidents per

e-bike compared to cars.

The Netherlands and European Union also have

other regulations in place to ensure safety.

E-bikes are capped at 25 kilometers per hour or

about 15 miles per hour, which is roughly the same

speed as regular bikes.

So they aren't competing.

And then in terms of regulation on e-bikes.

I think it is incredibly important We look at the

dangers of automobiles that can go 100 miles per

hour within a few seconds.

That barely registers with us.

But when somebody's riding around on an

e-bike going 30 miles an hour, suddenly everyone

freaks out. So I honestly think that a lot

of that danger is overblown. E-bikes, going

at a maximum of 25 kilometers an hour

actually works out pretty well and they're

compatible with one another.

As a society in the US, as a culture preference

cars over other means of transportation.

We've come up with this like this almost

paradoxical situation where it's safer to go in

a one tonne vehicle at 85 miles an hour in some

parts of the country than it is to walk.

It's also no secret that the US has very limited

biking infrastructure like bike lanes in place.

New York City is a relatively bikeable city

in the US, but per square mile it has about

50% of the amount of protected lanes as

Amsterdam, meaning cyclists frequently have

to contend with cars for space on the road.

Because biking is so safe in the Netherlands

and is prioritized as a means of transportation,

e-bikes have become extremely popular.

The big difference that you see here in the

Netherlands compared to most other places with

with very few exceptions, is that