BOWIE, Md. — Blue lights may be flashing in your rearview mirror, but if a motorcycle police officer is hot on your trail in Bowie, Maryland, you may not hear the familiar throaty engine rumble.
The Bowie Police Department has become the first in Maryland to deploy quiet, energy-efficient electric motorcycles. The city has purchased two.
Situated between the District and Annapolis, the city of nearly 55,000 has plenty of open space.
“Bowie has 13 parks and over 50 miles of trails,” says Police Chief John Nesky. “This is going to help us cover both the trails and the patrol streets.”
Bicycle police have been patrolling the parks and trails, but Nesky says they have a limited range and it’s difficult to swiftly move officers on bikes to different neighborhoods when they’re needed.
The electric motorcycles can reach a top speed of 90 mph.
The motorcycles are so quiet, their tires rolling on the pavement seem to make more noise than the electric motors.
“The beautiful thing about the electric motorcycles is we’re not disturbing the tranquility of the trails,” Nesky says.
The motorcycles can run up to 10 hours or 180 miles before they need to be recharged.
“One of the things that we wanted to look at was how can we be green, how can we save fuel, how can we make less of an environmental impact,” Nesky says.
The flat, black-colored bikes with twin saddle bags are DS models made by Zero Motorcycles of Scotts Valley, California.
They are not cheap. They each cost $22,000 and the chief plans to ask the city council to budget for four more.
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