Listen: I went on KUOW to defend WA bike shops from the proposed e-bike tax

Trek advertises a class 3 e-bike at the top of its e-bike section on its website, as one mainstream example. The WA Senate's transportation funding bill would add a 10% sales tax surcharge on this bike, which would be about $350 on top of about $350 from existing sales taxes. Buying the same bike from an Oregon bike shop could cost $700 less.

I was invited on KUOW's noontime show Soundside today to talk about the Washington Senate's e-bike tax, and I found myself focusing heavily on making the case for protecting our state's bike shops. Give it a listen.

At one point, Libby Denkmann cut through all the noise and asked this question: Would money raised from, say, a 10% surcharge on e-bikes be worth it if it goes toward a real upgrade for bicycle infrastructure in the state?" I think I answered decently well on the show, but I've been mulling over that question a lot since leaving the studio this morning. Why do I recoil so much from the idea of folks making such a deal?

My conclusion is at the heart of why I have been so heavily against the e-bike tax: Our local bike shops are not horses to be traded as part of a political debate. Bike shops employ people to be experts at keeping other people's bikes in working order and teach new workers these specialized skills. They are local centers of bicycling culture. They are vital bike infrastructure allowing all the other bicycling activity to be possible. They are many people's life work. We have no idea what the actual value" of our bike shops are to our state because they've always been there for us. I worry that we'll find out the hard way just how important and valuable they have been all this time if we pass legislation that makes it even harder for them to compete. I cannot stomach the idea of using a policy that could harm bike shops as a way to try to make a political deal in a transportation funding package.

So that's perhaps the strongest reason I'm still against even the scaled back version of the e-bike tax, which would exempt class 1 and 2 e-bikes so long as their electrical systems have certifications from EN or UL. Class 3 bikes are popular and legal (just not on most trails and sidewalks), and it still seems very strange to target them with such a huge tax increase. Pretty much all e-bike makers sell class 3 models, so these aren't just coming from the shady online sellers you might see in Instagram ads or when sorting by price on Amazon. Brick and mortar bike shops in Washington will be at a disadvantage if this e-bike tax goes through. Word will get around that you shouldn't buy an e-bike from a Washington bike shop because they have a bike tax even if some models would be exempt under the state's convoluted rules.

Even a full-strength e-bike tax was expected to raise only $9 million over six years, which does not even put a dent in the state's transportation budget. The reduced version would raise less. There are better ways to fund our state's transportation needs and all the great safety and multimodal projects that are planned.