In Central Oregon, electric bicycles have been growing in popularity. This month, Bend launched a rebate program to help get more e-bikes into lower-income households.

The technological advance has been praised by people who have adaptive needs or like showing up to work without schvitzing, but it’s been decried by others who worry about safety on roads and the environmental impact on trails.

Improving bicycle transit is one of the City of Bend’s goals for the 2025-2027 biennium, which were approved on June 18. Despite concerns around e-bikes, it’s clear from their popularity that they are not going anywhere, or rather, they’re going everywhere. Bend recently launched the second year of a rebate program to help certain residents purchase an electric bike. Seventy people will be chosen by lottery to receive $1,800 toward a new e-bike of any kind.

The program is open to adult Bend residents who are also Pacific Power customers and have a household income of at or below 80% of the city’s area median income.

Eligible people can apply until Aug. 17. The nonprofit Commute Options is partnering with Bend to administer the rebate program and will hold three drawings to select the winners. The lottery winners will receive a call or email with instructions on how to use the $1,800 rebate at participating bike shops.

Commute Options executive director Brian Potwin said market research found that $1,800 was an amount where people wouldn’t have to put in their own money to get a basic e-bike, “but if they do want something different or nicer, if you will, then they could do that.”

Pacific Power is funding the rebates and the city of Bend gave Commute Options $12,000 to administer the program. Last year, rebates of $2,000 went out to 75 participants. All funds were exhausted and the majority of awardees spent more than the $2,000 rebate. Potwin expects funds will be exhausted again this year, but leftovers could be put toward additional lottery winners.

People who receive the rebate will also have to take a safety course with Commute Options.

Concern about e-bike safety has been a topic of much discussion as their popularity has grown in Oregon. Last year, Oregon House Bill 4103 passed in Salem, updating regulations of e-bikes after a vehicle killed a teen riding an e-bike on Highway 20.

Both Potwin and Central Oregon Transportation Alliance board president Bill Lynch see the e-bike markets growing in Bend. Multiple market research analyses predict the e-bike market to grow nationally, though the impact of U.S. tariffs will affect prices, according to trade publications.

According to Bike Portland, the city of Portland is hoping to launch an e-bike voucher program this year and the Oregon legislature was considering an e-bike voucher program, but the bill’s fate was uncertain as the session wound down this week.

The Deschutes National Forest is also moving closer to allowing certain e-bikes on a select number of trails.

Last year, the U.S. Forest Service announced it would consider whether to allow what’s known as class 1 pedal-assist e-bikes on trails in the Deschutes forest. Currently, e-bikes of any kind are banned on any national forest trails.

OPB requested an interview with the Forest Service but they refused to provide one without first reviewing interview questions.

When the final draft of the Deschutes National Forest environmental assessment published June 12, the Central Oregon Trail Alliance said it supported the decision, but Lynch added it’s a position that has evolved over time.

“We’re very careful to say class 1 pedal-assist e-bikes, because there’s a certain kind of e-bike that we think is fine, and we think it’s fine now because we did a ton of homework,” he said.

Lynch stressed that the kind of e-bikes that are being considered are different from the e-bikes typically seen on city streets, which are often a class 2 or 3 type bicycles that have a throttle-assistance or high-speed pedal-assistance.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/06/27/central-oregon-e-electric-bikes-vouchers-low-income-bend/