I have an e-bike. I love my e-bike. I ride it to meetings all over the City of Charlottesville instead of driving my car. e-bikes are great.

A friend got an e-bike. He loves his e-bike. He has a different perspective, and I asked him to share. He kindly did.

We’re a bike-loving family. We have bikes. With two kids rapidly sprouting up through their elementary years, we’ve kept a corral of them — saying goodbye to the old friends they learned to ride on, saying hello to more capable bikes that will take them further than they imagined. As I’ve told my kids for years now, to me, bikes are freedom. They’ll take you where you want to go, when you want to go there — and you’ll experience the world on your way.

Recently, I was fortunate enough to find a nice used e-bike. To this older cyclist, who has raced and ridden competitively for 30+ years, there’s some intrinsic trepidation to what may feel a little like cheating. I’m strong and healthy enough to turn the pedals, so I should just do that, I tell myself. That is, until the motor kicks in. And that sense of freedom I’ve always experienced grew considerably stronger. The bike is a cargo e-bike outfitted to tote my two kids along with me. It has a rear light, a basket, and a display with some rudimentary information about the battery and level of assistance. I figured we’d get occasional use out of it — nicest-weather days, mostly leisure rides. What I found turned out to be considerably different. And in a good way.

Within the first two weeks, this e-bike has accrued over 100 miles. It has delivered me to Wegmans to pick up groceries. It has taken me to get a haircut. It has let me explore roads I’ve never traversed in my 15 years in the area. In short, it has become my primary mode of transportation for any task between 2 and 5 miles from home. As it turns out, that happens to be most of my tasks.

As wonderful as that’s been while my F-150 sits parked, what has been even more wonderful — and more compelling — is the extended freedom for adventuring it provides when I have my kids as passengers. Commute to day camp? We’ll swing by Bodo’s for a bite, then take a slow, quiet cruise down the Riverside trail before drop-off. Sunday afternoon treat calling? We make our way downtown and park on the Mall within eyesight of our favored ice cream parlor of the day. Need to escape the doldrums of an afternoon? We’ll cruise through a new neighborhood and get acquainted with our community.

I feel as though I’ve discovered a secret passage to easier commuting in this area. I’m also more in tune than ever with the growing need for supporting infrastructure. When it’s good, it’s good. But when it’s insufficient, it’s easy to see why this mode of transportation would be daunting for the everyday Joe who hasn’t spent countless hours of their life on a bike. The City and the County must continue to support cycling, because for every trip I make, that’s one less car on the road. And what they say is true: you aren’t in traffic, you are traffic.

We’re looking forward to regular school-day commutes in the fall. The bikes are ready. My kids are ready. My hope is that the infrastructure gets there too — because once you’ve felt this kind of freedom, you want it for your whole community, not just the riders who already know the back roads.

Before e-bikes, I had bike-commuting clients refuse to even look at homes where the morning started with a climb. Looking at you, Avon Street. E-bikes close the gaps and flatten the hills — houses that were off the table are suddenly in play. Now imagine the connected, safe infrastructure to match.

The Charlottesville e-bike library is (like all libraries) – amazing.