{"id":33393,"date":"2023-06-16T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/e-bike-rebate-recipients-begin-to-receive-new-wheels\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:09:16","slug":"e-bike-rebate-recipients-begin-to-receive-new-wheels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/e-bike-rebate-recipients-begin-to-receive-new-wheels\/","title":{"rendered":"E-bike rebate recipients begin to receive new wheels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Harrison
Harrison Crum rides his new e-bike on Thursday. He was able to purchase it in part because a city rebate program made it affordable for him to buy the bike that he will use to commute to work. The city hopes the rebate program will enable more people to use alternative means of transportation. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Summers in Durango can be characterized by congested roads and stressful commutes. The city hopes to help alleviate some of that bumper-to-bumper traffic \u2013 and aid in the transition to a greener community \u2013 by offering e-bike rebates.<\/p>\n

And, for those who have received rebates, the arrival of their new wheels is proving to be a fun, healthy and carefree way to commute.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe e-bike is really nice; it was very reliable \u2013 you can just charge it up,\u201d said Harrison Crum, one of the e-bike rebate recipients. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to pay for gas and, compared to a regular bike to get to work, it\u2019s a lot less energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before he received his e-bike in early May, Crum used a variety of transportation methods, including a road bike, public transit and an unreliable car to commute to work and run errands.<\/p>\n

Sera Wacasey, a sustainability intern at the city manager\u2019s office who is helping run the initiative, said Crum\u2019s situation is not uncommon in Durango.<\/p>\n

Wacasey said the rebate program was designed with three initiatives in mind: providing reliable transportation to those who lack it, lowering emissions and mitigating traffic congestion.<\/p>\n

Those eligible for the rebate include Durango-area residents, members of the Durango workforce and students attending school in Durango. Applications were due May 12, and recipients, who Wacasey says were selected based on a lottery system, were announced May 15.<\/p>\n

Once they receive their vouchers, recipients are required to adhere to a series of specifications about the bikes they are buying and the way they apply the voucher.<\/p>\n

To apply a voucher to a bike, a person must have it in hand at the time of purchase, said Mike Phillips with Mountain Bike Specialists in Durango.<\/p>\n

\"Eli
Eli Reagh, a mechanic with Mountain Bike Specialists, services a Specialized Como 3.0 class one electric bike on Wednesday. It is one of the types of e-bikes for which the city of Durango is offering a rebate. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As for the bikes themselves, the city\u2019s e-bike rebate information website indicates that vouchers cannot be applied to bikes with electric motors greater than 750 watts, or any full-suspension e-mountain bikes. The program isn\u2019t geared toward recreation as much as it is commuting.<\/p>\n

Additionally, e-bike rebate guidelines specify that vouchers can only be applied to class one and two bikes, which Phillips said top out at 20 mph.<\/p>\n

Class three bikes, which top out at 28 mph with pedal assist, were exempted from the rebate program because they are not permitted on trails, Wacasey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want people to be able to use the infrastructure we already have in place for transportation,\u201d Wacasey said.<\/p>\n

To increase e-bike accessibility to low-income community members, Wacasey said program funding has been broken into two categories: income qualified and general.<\/p>\n

Non-income-qualified vouchers range from $150 to $300, while income-qualified vouchers range from $500 to $1,550.<\/p>\n

Crum said he submitted an income-qualified application and was told his voucher would likely amount to $800 if he was selected. When he was awarded the full $1,550, he was ecstatic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was shocked, it was a very pleasant surprise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After waiting a little over two weeks, Crum had successfully selected and obtained his e-bike from Pedal the Peaks.<\/p>\n

Crum says having an e-bike will take a significant degree of stress out of his 2-mile daily commute to Manna soup kitchen where he works doing street outreach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very happy and grateful I got (the bike),\u201d Crum said. \u201cIt\u2019s really going to be helpful for me and I really appreciate that they\u2019re doing this program. It\u2019s really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Harrison
Harrison Crum rides his new e-bike on Thursday. He was able to buy the bike thanks in part to a city rebate program, which seeks to help more residents find alternative means of transpiration to work. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Eli
Eli Reagh, a mechanic with Mountain Bike Specialists, services a Specialized Como 3.0 class one electric bike on Wednesday. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Total program funding amounted to $50,000, which Wacasey said came from a $25,000 Colorado Department of Transportation grant that was matched by the city of Durango.<\/p>\n

So far, the money has been distributed to 18 income-qualified and 45 regular non-income-qualified applicants.<\/p>\n

For the approximately 140 people who are still on the waitlist or those who missed the May 12 application deadline, Wacasey said there is still hope.<\/p>\n

If recipients fail to redeem their rebates by Aug. 31, Wacasey said the money will be rolled over to applicants on the waitlist. The city of Durango is also actively applying for additional CDOT grants to fund additional rebates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could take up to a year and a half,\u201d Wacasey said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to focus on the waitlist and once everyone has been awarded, we will reopen more applications in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even Wacasey is on the list. \u201cI\u2019m pretty far down. But that\u2019s OK, I\u2019m patient.\u201d<\/p>\n

lveress@duarngoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Durango program aims to provide eco-friendly, reliable transportation to community members<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[950,222,28,259],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-33393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango","tag-environmental-pollution","tag-headlines","tag-transportation"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82180,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33393\/revisions\/82180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33393"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=33393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}