A surge of applicants vying for a chance to be chosen for a voucher worth up to $2,000 for the California E-Bike Incentive Program triggered an error in the program’s website, blocking everyone from applying.
Officials say they’ve fixed the glitch for the next round of applications next week.
The California E-Bike Incentive Program, launched by the California Air Resources Board, was established to help lower cost barriers to alternative methods of transportation such as e-bikes, with the goal of getting cars off the road and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Eligible residents must be 18 years or older with an annual household income less than 300% of the Federal Poverty Level. The vouchers can be used toward the purchase of an electric bike.
The website malfunction is the second one involving the e-bike program.
In December, a first-come, first-serve approach to selecting applicants overwhelmed the system, with the online application program closing after 45 minutes.
On April 29, a second round was scheduled to accept 1,000 applications of eligible Californians if they joined the online wait list between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. At 6 p.m. everyone in the wait list would have been placed in randomized order and queued up to apply for a voucher.
But Reddit users who joined the wait list at 6 p.m. automatically saw a message notifying them of “technical issues preventing all interested applicants from entering the queue.”
The California Air Resources Board says their program’s website experienced a high volume of traffic that day and detected it as suspicious activity.
“As a result, automatic security measures were activated and the website operated and controlled by California Air Resources Board’s third party administrator Pedal Ahead was temporarily unavailable,” said Lisa Macumber, spokesperson for the state agency.
The technology is never 100% certain and it could have happened under any administrator running a program like this, Macumber said.
In April, Macumber said the website had 150,000 people trying to get into the program’s online waiting room.
“It’s like getting tickets to a Taylor Swift concert, it can be really hard to get through the technology, and then at the end of the day, find out whether or not you’re successful,” she said. “So we really understand the frustration.”
The agency has rescheduled the second application window for May 29 and says this time it’s ready for droves of prospective applicants.
How will the agency avoid technical glitches in May?
When prospective applicants join the waiting room on May 29, they’ll automatically be directed to a virtual waiting room that is separate from the program’s website.
To avoid future problems, the California Air Resources Board and its partner Pedal Ahead hired Akamai Technologies, a cybersecurity and cloud computing company, and Queue-it, a company that manages website traffic congestion, to manage and host the virtual waiting room.
“Both firms are industry leaders in their field and work with some of the world’s largest companies to secure and manage large volumes of data and traffic,” Macumber said.”[They] will ensure a safe and reliable customer experience.”
What should you expect on May 29?
The California E-Bike Incentive Program has $2 million available to fund 1,000 vouchers for this second application window.
To date the program has approved 1,022 vouchers, worth more than $2 million, and 90% of the vouchers have been redeemed.
Interested applicants must enter the online waiting room between 5 and 6 p.m. The program has yet to publish the website for the next round of applications.
To check on eligibility requirements, visit the California E-Bike Incentive Project website for more information.
All individuals who enter the waiting room by 6 p.m. will be placed in the queue at random and have an equal opportunity to access the limited number of applicants.
