E-bikes can cut carbon, congestion, costs — if cities take them seriously

Last year, San Francisco voters did something exceedingly rare in car-crazy America: They closed two miles of a coastal highway to vehicles, creating a sprawling park for pedestrians, joggers, and cyclists . Of course, furious residents in the neighborhood bordering the erstwhile highway voted last month to recall their representative at City Hall for championing the transformation and, to their minds, creating a traffic nightmare on side streets — even though commute times in the area have grown by just a few minutes since the closure.

The battle in the City by the Bay is emblematic of the inflection point facing cities nationally. As more electric vehicles hit the road, the temptation is to invest heavily in the infrastructure — roads, highways, parking lots — that will preserve t