CHINCOTEAGUE ISLAND, Va. - A fleet of twenty electric bicycles will soon be available to rent on Chincoteague Island.
Mike Gellis captains boat tours of the Island. Gellis says when he decided to branch out to land tours, e-bikes were a no brainer.
"You can get up close and personal, you can ride around Chincoteague Island at your own pace, and you can still ride over to Assateague Island and see all the things you can't see with cars and scooters," Gellis said.
E-Bike sales have skyrocketed, more than doubling since the start of the pandemic.
Rich Alloway says he thinks there is a reason for that.
"Because of the pandemic, people want to be outside now. They want to do more eco-tourist stuff. They want to go out and see things up close and be closer to nature," Alloway said.
In Virginia, electric bicycles share many of the same rights as conventional bicycles. In the past, the Virginia legislature has taken steps to provide e-bike operators more protections out on the road.
In 2020, lawmakers passed a bill categorizing e-bikes into three categories. That bill requires helmets for e-bikes that can go faster than 20 miles per hour.
If the popularity of e-bikes takes out, expect even more on the roads of the Island by the summer tourist season.