Electric bikes (e-bikes) have sparked a lot of controversy recently, particularly around safety and regulation. Some argue that they’re a dangerous nuisance, while others believe the real problem lies elsewhere. But before we get too caught up in the panic over e-bikes, we need to take a step back and ask ourselves: What’s really the most dangerous vehicle on our roads?
It’s not the e-bike, as many critics would have you believe. It’s the car.
The Real Danger: Cars, Not E-Bikes
Every year, over 40,000 people die in car crashes in the United States. Thousands more are permanently injured. Entire communities are fragmented by high-speed traffic. Children can’t walk to school without being at risk. But instead of focusing on these staggering statistics, we’re all too quick to shift our attention to the comparatively minor dangers posed by e-bikes.
Yes, e-bikes are faster than regular bikes. Yes, they’re heavier, and yes, they require riders to be more educated about safety. These are valid concerns. But when we look at the scale of the issue, the comparison becomes stark. For instance, in New York City, despite having the highest concentration of e-bike usage in the country, the average number of pedestrian deaths from e-bike accidents is just two per year. Compare that to 100 car-related pedestrian deaths annually in the same city. That’s a 50x difference. Yet, somehow, e-bike accidents garner the lion’s share of attention.
The Double Standard
It’s mind-boggling how quickly we’ve become desensitized to car violence. Every day, we hear about drunk driving, speeding, or distracted driving. Car crashes are a routine part of life, but the real crisis—the daily deaths caused by cars—barely raises an eyebrow. Meanwhile, when an e-bike rider blows through a stop sign, the reaction is often swift and dramatic. City councils hold emergency hearings and calls for bans are made, despite the numbers being on the side of cars being far more lethal.
E-Bikes Aren’t the Real Menace
To be clear, e-bikes do come with their own set of challenges, and these should be addressed. Riders should be educated on safe practices, and enforcement of traffic laws should apply fairly across all vehicles, not just to the new entrants. But let’s not lose perspective: e-bikes may startle a pedestrian or cause some minor crashes, but they don’t kill people in the way cars do. They don’t have the same destructive power as a 2.5-ton machine that can hit speeds of over 100 mph. And yet, we continue to focus on the new, quieter, and faster alternative to traditional bicycles while allowing the far more dangerous status quo to continue.
The True Scale of the Problem
This isn’t an exaggeration. Cars are used as mass casualty weapons far too often. Just recently, a car deliberately drove into a crowd outside a nightclub in Los Angeles, injuring over 30 people. That wasn’t an isolated incident. The same day, another car rammed pedestrians on a sidewalk in New York City, leaving several dead. These aren’t one-off tragedies; they’re part of a consistent, depressing pattern. Car violence is part of our daily news cycle, yet we accept it as normal. Meanwhile, e-bike accidents are the ones we’re losing our minds over.
Addressing the Real Crisis
It’s time to stop pretending that e-bikes are the threat. They’re a solution. They’re helping to reduce pollution, cut down on traffic, and offer a cleaner, more efficient way to move around. E-bikes provide an alternative to gas-powered vehicles, which continue to contribute to the world’s biggest environmental and public health problems. And yet, we treat them like public enemy number one because they disrupt the dominance of cars.
Instead of focusing all our energy on regulating e-bikes—on setting speed limits, enforcing helmet laws, and passing bans—we should be having an honest conversation about the real menace: the car. The vehicles that routinely kill people, damage infrastructure, and endanger communities on a daily basis.
Solutions, Not Scapegoats
If we want safer streets, we need to look at the bigger picture. Let’s invest in education programs for e-bike riders. Let’s build better bike lanes, improve pedestrian infrastructure, and enforce existing laws to ensure that e-bikes are used safely. These are all valuable steps. But let’s not allow ourselves to be distracted by the easy target—the kid on the e-bike who made a mistake—while completely overlooking the thousands of drivers who speed, drive distracted, or make dangerous decisions every day.
Electric bikes are not the problem. They are part of the solution. They offer a glimpse of hope in a transportation system that has been dominated by the car for decades. It’s time to stop pretending that e-bikes are the problem and face the real crisis on our roads: cars, and the systemic issues that allow them to kill tens of thousands of people each year.
So, let’s talk about what’s truly dangerous on our streets: the cars that we’ve grown to accept as normal. Because, frankly, if we’re really concerned about safety, we should focus on the menace that can reach 100 mph—not the one that tops out at 20 mph and runs on a motor the size of an orange.
