The Berkeley E-Bike Equity Project (BEEP) recently concluded its pilot program and an overview of the program’s impact, as well as Waterside Workshops’ youth intern program that supported the program, are featured in Berkeleyside’s article “Here’s what happened when Berkeley gave free e-bikes to 56 residents.”
Berkeleyside reporter Iris Kwok writes:
In addition to giving out free e-bikes, Berkeley’s pilot program also created a youth bicycle mechanics internship that taught youth how to safely assemble and service e-bikes.
“E-bike repair and knowledge about them is new … for the American bike industry,” Otto said. “We’ve just now seen a resurgence in popularity among the public [and] mechanical education has taken a little bit of time to bring that into the fold of what they would normally learn in an apprenticeship in a bike shop or through more formal education.”
Program staff mechanics from Waterside Workshops and a team of 20 youth interns — mostly low-income Berkeley residents who received training on professional bike repair — assembled the fleet of e-bikes, installing flat tire and theft prevention materials including tube sealant and seat leashes.
Once the e-bikes were distributed, interns assisted with quarterly repairs and safety checks and got more practice fixing used bicycles — which were then distributed to and assisting community members at Waterside Workshop’s DIY open shop workspace.