<body><div>Electric bikes and scooters have been on the rise recently. Many students at ADM have began to trade out their “normal” bikes for electric ones. These bikes have an average of 20 MPH, with some even reaching 30. With these bikes, riders are encouraged to wear helmets, and the bikes are outfitted with stronger breaks, but is this really enough? People have a 10% chance of dying in a car crash at an impact speed of 20 MPH, and that’s in a car, with more protection than a bike. Many riders also use these bikes as a way to commute at higher speeds without a driving license. Are E-bikes and E-scooters worth the hype? Should younger people be trusted with operating them?Bikers of ADMWith the bike trail being down the road, there’s no doubt that there are plenty of bikers in Adel. Whether for sport or transportation, biking is rooted in our towns culture. Since the pandemic, almost 35% of families have at least one member who rides an E-bike, so it’s very likely the trend has made it’s way to Adel, DeSoto and Minburn. Many students and staff in both the middle and high school use bikes and scooters as a way to get to school/work. I interviewed students and staff who use both electric and manual bikes and asked about biking, and their opinions on the E-bike takeover.Meet Brian McDermott:Brian McDermott is a junior, and owns an E-Bike. He enjoys his bike because it is easier to ride than a normal bike, and it saves money on gas. He has both a car and a bike, but he usually uses his car when he has more stuff to bring home such as his instrument.When talking about the dangers of E-Bikes, McDermott shared about his experience with accidents saying: “I haven’t hit anyone. It’s come close a couple times where I have almost hit someone, but most of the time it’s because of drivers.” He does not wear a helmet with his bike. On a brighter note, He shared what he uses his bike for other than than going to school. “Sometimes I just bike out on the trails in Adel, or go to Waukee. I just go wherever and find some place to relax. It’s really nice.” McDermott shared. “E-bikes are more fun. It’s more fun to get to plate to place and you can go longer for faster. My bike goes 35, so it’s pretty fast.”His advice for younger bikers is “I would say for, like, middle schoolers, or underclassmen but mainly younger students, especially, they should just watch out, pay attention to what they are doing. Don’t take after what I do, wear a helmet please, and just overall watch what you are doing. Stay on sidewalks, don’t do any tricks or be reckless, because a lot of the middle schoolers and people that have these bikes have no idea what they are doing.” Meet Jeff Freidhof:Jeff Freidhof teaches Industrial Tech, and is an avid biker. Out of his 11 bikes, he usually rides a pedal bike with fat tires. Freidhof<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0EkHUC_1GuvxjZJ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0EkHUC_1GuvxjZJ00" width="2001" height="1501" ><figcaption>Clusters of bikes, e-bikes, and e-scooters line the bike rack beside the middle school in the morning. (Avery Caswell)</figcaption></figure>uses his bike like a car, taking it around town for errands and to work. He has outfitted his bike with lots of bags and headlights and in the wintertime he wears special mits and uses tires with lots of tread. Freidhof likes to bike around the state, saying “I’ve Had friends where we say, hey, instead of doing a whole week of Ragbrai, lets just ride across the state of Iowa. So we’d do about 300 miles in 24 hours.” Iowa isn’t his only route, as he has biked around Eastern Europe, South America and Central Asia.On the side of E-Bikes, Freidhof said “I think they have got a good place in the world. In fact, I would like to see people, if they would get more people biking and they would use them for short trips around town or go to Fareway and everything else. I think it would be huge, because then it means we are driving vehicles less, and using less gasoline.”He mainly shares this sentiment with pedal assisted E-Bikes, But when talking about throttle-only bikes with no pedaling Freidhof said “I see younger people that have E-Bikes that are just throttle, or they can run on a motor without pedaling, and they are just going way too fast. They don’t have helmets and are not considerate. And so what I think is if they want the assistance of an E-Bike, get ones that are pedal assists where you still have to do some of the work to ride it. I think that that would help slow people down and make it a little bit safer.</div></body>

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Electric bikes and scooters have been on the rise recently. Many students at ADM have began to trade out their “normal” bikes for electric ones. These bikes have an average of 20 MPH, with some even reaching 30. With these bikes, riders are encouraged to wear helmets, and the bikes are outfitted with stronger breaks, but is this really enough? People have a 10% chance of dying in a car crash at an impact speed of 20 MPH, and that’s in a car, with more protection than a bike. Many riders also use these bikes as a way to commute at higher speeds without a driving license. Are E-bikes and E-scooters worth the hype? Should younger people be trusted with operating them?

E-Bikes and E-Scooters: Good or Bad?

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Electric bikes and scooters have been on the rise recently. Many students at ADM have began to trade out their “normal” bikes for electric ones. These bike

E-Bikes and E-Scooters: Good or Bad?

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