Mitt Romney calls new bike lanes 'the height of stupidity' as bicyclists press Congress to make roads safer and e-bikes cheaper
- Democrats want to provide tax credits for e-bike purchases and more funding for road safety.
- Republicans largely aren't on board.
The GOP is skeptical about a new push for cheaper e-bikes and safer bike infrastructure.
Democratic lawmakers recently re-introduced legislation that would give Americans up to $1,500 off the purchase of an electric bicycle. Biking advocates are also pushing for the passage of a bill that would unlock additional federal funds for road safety.
Republican lawmakers are far from on board. The E-BIKE Act faces an especially uphill battle on the Hill with a GOP-controlled House.
"We're over-subsidizing electric vehicles as it is now," Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, told Insider in the Capitol this week. "I don't want to add to the unfairness of the current system where electric cars are free riders and don't pay to help maintain our roads and bridges through a gas tax or any kind of surcharge."
Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, also dismissed subsidies for e-bikes and insisted that those who can't afford cars should take mass transit.
"I'm not going to spend money on buying e-bikes for people like me who have bought them — they're expensive," he said. "Removing automobile lanes to put in bike lanes is, in my opinion, the height of stupidity, it means more cars backing up, creating more emissions."
Proponents of the tax credits say they could be more targeted towards low-income people to assuage concerns about subsidizing a luxury good for higher-income people. Mass transit often isn't an option for workers in suburban or rural communities, they say.
As the E-BIKE Act stands now, it would give Americans who earn up to $150,000, or up to $300,000 for joint tax filers, a refundable tax credit of 30% off the purchase of an e-bike, up to $1,500.
"Cycling is the most efficient form of human transportation ever devised. By burning calories instead of fossil fuels, we can make our communities healthier and more livable," Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer, who helped introduce the bill, said in a statement. "With an e-bike, anyone can be a bike commuter, but the high cost discourages too many consumers."
The opposition to pro-bicycle policy has to be understood in the larger context of the culture war and conservative fears of Democrats' climate-friendly agenda, said Tim Carney, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
"There is a widespread suspicion on the right today that liberals want to take away their way of life," Carney told Insider. "This idea that the left knows there's only one right way to live, it's the way that we want to live and we're going to force it on you. That is in the background of the mind of every conservative, and so when they hear more bike lanes, they think, 'Okay, what is that code for?'"
Some GOP leaders have explicitly stoked fear about progressive efforts to make cities more livable. Last year, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton warned Fox News viewers that Democrats "want to make you live in downtown areas, and high-rise buildings, and walk to work, or take the subway, or ride an electric scooter" and "make us all poor."
The Arkansas lawmaker added, "they want to get you out of your pickup truck, out of your SUV, out of your home in the suburbs where you can have a backyard with your kids."
But many conservatives support bike infrastructure and road safety, particularly when it's aimed at helping kids and families. Carney told attendees at the annual National Bike Summit in Washington last week to frame their efforts as building safer and more interconnected communities.
"What parents need now is the ability to set their kids free and have them be safe," Carney said. "Better bike safety, and better bike trails and lanes make life easier and more fun for your average suburban parents and for the kids. It also builds resilience and independence among kids, and makes us have fewer snowflake kids when they get to college."