Fire up your computers or help a friend with theirs Tuesday morning, as Denver prepares another batch of the wildly popular e-bike discount vouchers for an 11 a.m. release that customarily sells out within moments.
The city is opening up 220 more vouchers Tuesday for the program that offers up to $1,200 to low-income residents to buy a new e-bike, and $300 for non-income qualified residents. Bike seekers can register ahead of time at the city’s climate office e-bike portal, to improve their chances for the 11 a.m. release.
City officials recommend signing up ahead of time, and uploading the two necessary documents to have them ready for the application opening: proof of Denver residency, and if seeking an income-qualified voucher, proof of income or existing enrollment in another income-qualified program.
The next Denver voucher release is Oct. 29.
The e-bike support program has been the most popular and visible part of spending by the Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency since city voters approved a sales tax surcharge to produce $40 million to $45 million a year for climate-related actions. Voucher winners had redeemed 8,895 of the discounts at approved bike shops since the start of the program by mid-August, the most recent figures supplied by the city.
The returned vouchers have been split nearly evenly between cargo bikes, which come with a $1,400 income-qualified discount, and standard e-bikes, the city said. About 45% of the vouchers have gone to income-qualified residents. Community-based organizations that help people get online if they face barriers to using the voucher portal in a timely way have now helped land 481 of the vouchers for clients, the city said.
Spending is up to $8.3 million, and 65% of that has gone for the more lucrative income-qualified vouchers, the city said. Though it remains a challenge to get verifiable statistics on how the bikes are used, the city says its surveys of voucher users suggest that e-bike use has reduced car use by millions of miles, and the average user is eliminating 3.4 car trips a week with the electric-motor bikes.