Riding an electric bicycle is a bit like becoming the Hulk. When I hopped on a pedelec bike owned by Jump Bikes (”pedelec” short for “pedal electric cycle,” an e-bike with a small motor that assists pedaling but doesn’t do all the work) for a ride around San Francisco, I felt just a touch stronger. Like someone had sprinkled me with a few gamma rays.

The e-bike was better than a regular bike, obvi. But it might be better than the bus, too. And better than another awkward conversation with an Uber driver. At $2 for 30 minutes, it might be cheaper, faster, and easier, too. That's because Jump runs a dockless bike-share service, the kind that has been hoovering venture capital like a Dyson run amok.

The company isn't alone. There's been an explosion of American dockless, electric bike-sharing systems, which started in Europe and Asia and have now reached American shores. Eight-year-old Jump is live in San Francisco and Washington, DC. Limebike has zippy electrified bikes in Seattle, parts of the Bay Area, and soon, San Diego. Spin, less than one year old, offers e-bikes in Miami and on two university campuses. Nere, a company currently operating under the name Smide in Switzerland, plans to enter the American market in at the end of the year.

Bike-sharing is not new, but unlike your standard docked system—like New York’s Citi Bike, which greeted its 50 millionth ride last year—you can drop off an electric, dockless bike anywhere. (Some, like Jump’s, lock to racks; others, like Nere’s, lock in place wherever you want.) When you want a ride, the app will give you the location and charge level of nearby bikes.

E-bikes are faster and less cumbersome than your average, pokey bike-share steed. They can conquer all manner of terrain—even San Francisco hills—no sweat required. And they won’t tire out riders, no matter their age or fitness level. These are the bikes could get the old and office-bound into cycling.

Beth Holzer for WIRED Beth Holzer for WIRED

Which is why dockless, electric bike-sharing should make everyone in the transportation business a bit nervous. Say hello to the potential slayer of Uber, Lyft, or Car2Go—any car-based service meant for short trips in the city. “We substitute for public transit, taxi, and ridesharing,” says Nere CEO Kirt McMaster.

The data backs up the bravado. “Research in other parts of the world has suggested for a long time that electric bikes can be very disruptive to other travel modes because of their ease of use, additional power, and the ability to go from point A to point B without hitting as much congestion or having to take multiple transit transfers,” says Susan Shaheen, a UC Berkeley civil engineer who studies mobility innovation. “How all of these things converge? Do they ultimately complement one another, or do they compete with other modes? It’s hard to know with the ecosystem of shared modes and bike-sharing evolving so quickly.”

While researchers crunch the data, those building the bikes say their competitive edge will come down to trip length, cost, and your favorite city bugbear, traffic.

In 2016, the average Uber trip in San Francisco was around 5 miles; in Boston, about 4.5; Chicago, around 5.5. E-bike-share has its eyes on the shorter trips—journeys that are too far to walk, but stay within the urban core. Jump Bikes says its average ride in DC and San Francisco is around 3 miles. In Zurich, where Nere has operated for 18 months, most rides are between two and six miles. Sure, those will cost you more than your standard bike-sharing trip, about 25 cents a minute for Nere and $2 for the first 30 minutes and 7 cents after that for Jump. But it's still competitive with an Uber ride, or maybe even the bus.