Navigating the e-bike boom with America’s outdated infrastructure

Published

3 years ago

December 29, 2022

admin

Electric bikes are becoming increasingly popular around the world. In the U.S. e-bike sales are outpacing electric and hybrid cars combined, according to the Light Electric Vehicle Association.

“The level of ridership has almost doubled or more every year since 2015,” said Mike Radenbaugh, the founder and chairman of Rad Power Bikes. “And we see no slowing of that in the years forward as we look at fuel prices increasing and other challenges to transportation only getting worse.”

This trend is in large part due to the variety of options that have entered the market. Some are built specifically for certain jobs such as food delivery, others are designed to fold up or built with extra seats for kids.

Now, they’re being used as a convenient micro-mobility transportation option for those who don’t want the inconveniences and costs that come with a car.

In the U.S., some e-bikes can travel at up to 28 mph, but most peak at around 20 mph.

This speed is often blamed for the increased dangers that are seen with e-bikes compared with those of traditional bikes.

“It’s actually simple physics. If a car is traveling 45 or 40 miles an hour and hits somebody, it’s almost a certain fatality. Whereas if that same car is traveling just 10 miles an hour less, you’ve got less than half that probability of a fatality,” said Charles DiMaggio, a professor of surgery and population health at NYU who led a study on e-bike injuries.

The severity of injuries between different forms of micro-mobility has proven e-bikes to be significantly more dangerous.

“E-bikes are three times more likely to result in a hospitalization if an injury occurs compared to traditional bikes,” DiMaggio said.

However, e-bikers and cycling enthusiasts argue the speed isn’t an issue — but cars are.

“Cars are the greatest threat to other road users,” Radenbaugh said. “Whether that’s pedestrians, regular cyclists or electric bikes.”

In places such as the Netherlands where biking infrastructure is prioritized, e-bikes are significantly safer to use.

“The big difference that you see here in the Netherlands compared to most other places, with very few exceptions, is that everybody cycles here. Everybody from 6-year-olds to 90-year-olds,” said Jason Slaughter, the creator of an urban planning YouTube channel called Not Just Bikes.

To make the U.S. safer for e-bikes, an approach similar to what has been done in much of the Netherlands — replacing roads with bike paths and pedestrian plazas — is a likely solution.

“And bicycle infrastructure is not expensive. But we need to start thinking about this seriously in North America as a network,” Slaughter said.

Technology

We’re putting an AI giant in the Bullpen — not letting a mistake cloud our judgment

Published

4 hours ago

December 22, 2025

admin

We're putting an AI giant in the Bullpen — not letting a mistake cloud our judgment

Technology

Space stocks rocket higher as sector optimism gains steam into 2026

Published

5 hours ago

December 22, 2025

admin

Space stocks rocket higher as sector optimism gains steam into 2026

Firefly’s CEO Jason Kim reacts during the company’s IPO at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York City, U.S., August 7, 2025.

Jeenah Moon | Reuters

Alphabet to acquire data center and energy infrastructure company Intersect

Published

6 hours ago

December 22, 2025

admin

Alphabet to acquire data center and energy infrastructure company Intersect

Google parent Alphabet on Monday announced it will acquire Intersect, a data center and energy infrastructure company, for $4.75 billion in cash in addition to the assumption of debt.

Alphabet said Intersect’s operations will remain independent, but that the acquisition will help bring more data center and generation capacity online faster.

In recent years, Google has been embroiled in a fierce competition with artificial intelligence rivals, namely OpenAI, which kick-started the generative AI boom with the launch of its ChatGPT chatbot in 2022. OpenAI has made more than $1.4 trillion of infrastructure commitments to build out the data centers it needs to meet growing demand for its technology.

With its acquisition of Intersect, Google is looking to keep up.

“Intersect will help us expand capacity, operate more nimbly in building new power generation in lockstep with new data center load, and reimagine energy solutions to drive US innovation and leadership,” Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, said in a statement.

Read more CNBC tech news

Google already had a minority stake in Intersect from a funding round that was announced last December. In a release at the time, Intersect said its strategic partnership with Google and TPG Rise Climate aimed to develop gigawatts of data center capacity across the U.S., including a $20 billion investment in renewable power infrastructure by the end of the decade.

Alphabet said Monday that Intersect will work closely with Google’s technical infrastructure team, including on the companies’ co-located power site and data center in Haskell County, Texas. Google previously announced a $40 billion investment in Texas through 2027, which includes new data center campuses in the state’s Haskell and Armstrong counties.

Intersect’s operating and in-development assets in California and its existing operating assets in Texas are not part of the acquisition, Alphabet said. Intersect’s existing investors including TPG Rise Climate, Climate Adaptive Infrastructure and Greenbelt Capital Partners will support those assets, and they will continue to operate as an independent company.

Alphabet’s acquisition of Intersect is expected to close in the first half of 2026, but it is still subject to customary closing conditions.

WATCH: Here’s what’s happening to electricity bills in states with the most data centers