Applications Open For $75,000 In Vouchers For Income-Qualified Evanstonians To Buy Bikes

EVANSTON, IL — Starting Thursday, Evanston residents can apply for the city's new bicycle voucher pilot program, which aims to support sustainability and equity efforts by cutting down car use and expanding transportation access.

Online applications will remain open through Sept. 23. Next month, winners will be selected randomly from a pool of eligible applicants to receive an electronic gift card via email.

The majority of those vouchers must then be used by the end of October at one of five bike shops, aligning with the end of the cycling season, when bike shops are often clearing out their inventory.

To be eligible to receive a voucher, participants must be at least 14 years old and live in households earning at or below 80 percent of the area median income. That comes out to less than about $63,000 for those who live alone, $90,000 for a family of four or about $104,000 for a six-person household.

The Evanston program allows for $750 vouchers to buy standard bikes or up to $4,000 toward the cost of an e-bike or scooter.

That means the $75,000 pilot program will only distribute somewhere between 20 and 100 vouchers.

Income-qualified residents can also use the vouchers on locks, helmets and lights to income-qualified residents.

The program was modeled after an e-bike rebate program in Denver, Colorado. Similar initiatives have also been launched in Connecticut and Vermont.

Participating bike shops include Mack’s Bike & Goods, Wheel & Sprocket, Bucephalus Bikes, Play it Again Sports and the Pony Shop in Evanston, as well as The Recyclery Collective in Chicago.

The pilot program is funded through Northwestern University’s $500,000 contribution to the city's sustainability fund, one of the many financial arrangements that helped university officials secure approval of their plans to redevelop Ryan Field into a commercial concert venue last year through what was effectively a "cash-for-zoning" memorandum of understanding.

In May, the City Council allocated some of that money to the bike voucher pilot, along with $200,000 to heat pump incentives and $125,000 to inductive stove incentives, having already set aside $100,000 to support the purchase of electric leaf blowers.

"Research and case studies have shown that the strongest predictor of bike use is access to a bike, and providing bicycles through government programs such as this increases ridership in a sustained way," Drew Weidner, a member of the participatory budgeting committee that proposed the program last year, said in a video.

"This would promote active transit and reduction in automobile use, ultimately promoting clean air, quiet and safe streets and active transit for a better Evanston."

After distributing the vouchers, city staff plan to provide free bike safety courses, bike maintenance classes and group rides and encourage program participants to submit data about their cycling habits.

Learn more about the Evanston Bicycle Access Voucher Pilot »