Salt Lake City has nixed its popular e-bike voucher program, as the proposed budget from Mayor Erin Mendenhall doesn’t include funding for the program in Fiscal Year 2026.
Though Mendenhall said the e-bike program wasn’t included in her newly proposed budget to the city, she told Building Salt Lake she’s hoping to revive the program in future years. The program allowed Salt Lakers of all income levels to have the city pay for part of a new e-bike purchase, and the voucher amount varied depending on income level and the type of e-bike.
“We had a flat budget this year, so we weren’t able to renew it,” she said. “But I do intend to consider it in future budgets.”
Last summer, Salt Lake City received 2,225 applications for vouchers and gave out 277 vouchers as part of a lottery system, according to materials provided by Catherine Wyffels, the air quality and environmental program manager for the city’s Sustainability Department. The program was a part of the city’s Clean Air SLC initiative, which aimed to improve air quality around town by cutting emissions.
Nearly half of those vouchers — 46% — went to low-income applicants, which the city defined as people making 60% AMI or lower. Moderate income earners — which the city defined as 60%-80% AMI — received 29% of vouchers, and standard income earners with AMI’s above 80% received 25% of vouchers.
Standard income earners could receive $300 toward a commuter e-bike and up to $600 for a cargo e-bike. Moderate income earners could get $500 for a commuter bike and $800 for a cargo bike. For low income earners, they could get $1,000 for a commuter bike and $1,300 for a cargo bike.
“We prioritized partnering with shops located in Salt Lake City to ensure participants had access to support both during their bike purchase and for ongoing maintenance and repairs,” Wyffels said in an email.
However, she told Building Salt Lake that only around 60% of people who received vouchers actually redeemed them. Those who received vouchers only had 60 days to use them toward a new e-bike. That gap led the city to another round of vouchers, as the city had around $50,000 to spend on the second round.
This time, however, the city invited low-income applicants to opt back into the program, and of the 719 that were invited, 412 reapplied for the voucher program, according to the numbers supplied by Wyffels. Of the 56 applicants that were picked for vouchers, 47 redeemed them. In total, the city spent $203,500 on vouchers — slightly more than the $200,000 initially set aside for the program.
Wyffels said the program had some learning curves that the city would address in the future if more funding would be available. She said the city surveyed all of those who received the vouchers — both those who did and did not use them.
“Price was a big issue,” Wyffels said, explaining that some people who were awarded vouchers still couldn’t afford a new e-bike. “Not enough time to redeem the voucher was another issue too.”
Despite the ups and downs, Wyffels said the program showed city officials there’s an appetite among Salt Lakers to ditch their cars and use e-bikes as their means of transportation, especially as the city continues to improve roads and expand bike lanes around town.
“There’s definitely enough people out there who are interested in buying e-bikes and using it as their primary transportation,” she said.
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