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Saturday, August 25, 2018

E Bikes

Key Words: E Bikes Barrier; Bike Highways


E Bikes
Electric bicycles (e-bikes) may reduce energy use, air pollution and noise for private transportation through a modal shift from fossil-fuel powered vehicles to e-bikes on short distance trips. However, designing effective promotion campaigns for the adoption of e-bikes requires detailed knowledge on user characteristics and motivations. In order to explain e-bike use on work, shopping and leisure trips, the present study combines concepts from technology adoption with factors derived from research on mobility behaviour. The study employs structural equation modeling to survey data from 1398 Austrian early adopters who purchased an e-bike between 2009 and 2011.
Results show that early adopters are predominantly comprised of persons aged 60   years or older who mainly use the e-bike for leisure trips. Carbon-intensive travel modes on commuting trips are barely substituted. Early adopters typically hold pro-environmental and technophile attitudes. E-bike use is most driven by perceived usefulness, which in turn depends on an easy use, appropriate infrastructure, also user’s norms and attitudes towards environment and physical activity. Comparison by trip purpose shows that a supportive social environment and personal ecological norms influence e-bike use on work and shopping trips, whereas leisure use of e-bikes is driven by attitudes towards physical activity. Comparison by age groups underlines that older e-bike users are more dependent on practical usefulness of the technology and facilitating road infrastructure. Therefore, e-bike promotion strategies should differentiate between trip purpose and age segments when selecting target groups.

E Bikes in the Mainstream
Electric bicycles (e-bikes) represent one of the fastest growing segments of the transport market. Over 31 million e-bikes were sold in 2012. Research has followed this growth and this paper provides a synthesis of the most pertinent themes emerging over the past on the burgeoning topic of e-bikes. The focus is transport rather than recreational e-bike research, as well as the most critical research gaps requiring attention. China leads the world in e-bike sales, followed by the Netherlands and Germany. E-bikes can maintain speed with less effort. E-bikes are found to increase bicycle usage. E-bikes have the potential to displace conventional motorised (internal combustion) modes, but there are open questions about their role in displacing traditional bicycles. E-bikes have been shown to provide health benefits and an order of magnitude less carbon dioxide than a car travelling the same distance. Safety issues have emerged as a policy issue in several jurisdictions and e-bike numbers are now approaching levels in which adequate safety data are able to be collected. Research on e-bikes is still in its infancy. As e-bike usage continues to grow, so too will the need for further research, in order to provide the necessary data to inform policy-makers and industry.

E Bikes Barriers
One major barrier of e-bike use is that the purchase price of e-bike is 3 to 4 times higher than that of a conventional bicycle

E Bikes Cycling in The Netherlands and the UK – Bicycle Highways
The Netherlands and the UK are European regions with very different cycling cultures. Levels of cycling in the Netherlands are much greater than in the UK (1% of all trips in UK versus 27% in NL) largely a result of the Netherlands having a long history of implementing a ‘multifaceted and mutually reinforcing’ set of policies focused on supporting and promoting cycling. Dutch owners of e-bikes therefore benefit from favourable conditions for cycling and are able to use the existing network of approximately 35,000 km of cycle paths. Regional authorities are also investing in ‘bicycle highways’, which offer direct connections between urban centres (e.g. Arnhem and Nijmegen — and there is a strong push to encourage e-bike use for commuting

E Bikes Use in Sweden
There is a strong political desire to reduce the use of fossil fuels in road transport. In this paper, the use of e-bikes (of the pedelec type) in Sweden is analysed by focusing on changes in travel behaviour and their corresponding effects on CO2 emissions. The aim is to analyse the effect on CO2 emissions due to the use of e-bikes. The analysis is carried out on the possible differences in changed travel behaviour between areas dominated by either urban or rural environments. It is based on a combination of responses to a questionnaire distributed to e-bike users and a survey of local transport planners in Swedish municipalities. The results indicate that there are large gains to be made from e-bike usage in terms of decreased CO2 emissions through a reduction in car mileage. Furthermore, the results indicate that the potential for e-bikes to replace car trips is as great in rural areas as it is in urban areas. At the same time, the results indicate that the Swedish municipalities carrying out e-bike campaigns target trips in both urban and rural areas, therefore representing an effective promotion strategy to achieve the full CO2 emissions reducing potential of e-bike use. This study also shows that, depending on the type of errand being carried out, more respondents living in urban areas than in rural areas replace their conventional bicycle trips with e-bike trips. Thus, the use of e-bikes produces some less than desirable effects, such as reduced physical activity

E Bikes Use in Oxford, UK
Oxford, UK— Oxford is regarded as one of the UK's ‘cycling cities’. The university-city is located approximately 100 km from London in the south of UK, and is renowned for being an important educational centre and tourist destination. It has a resident population of around 150,000 and a temporary population of around 40,000 students. Around 17% of journeys to work are by cycle compared to the England and Wales average (excluding London) of around 3%(UK Office for National Statistics, 2014). The local authority describes provision for cyclists in Oxford as: “One of the most comprehensive in the country with cycle lanes on many main roads, traffic speeds generally less than 30 mph and 20 mph on all side roads and many quiet routes away from the main radial roads”

 US E Bikes Research
In some parts of the world, electric bicycles (e-bikes) represent a significant share of daily travel, though they are still rare in the United States. The small size and maneuverability of e-bikes that are assets in cities in China may not be as important in the U.S., where cities are built to accommodate cars, but their potential as a substitute for cars makes them an important part of the discussion around sustainable transportation. In this study we conducted 27 interviews with e-bike users in the greater Sacramento area in which we asked participants about the reasons why they chose to invest in an e-bike, the ways in which they use their e-bikes, positive and negative aspects of using e-bikes, and reactions from friends and family members. Several important themes emerged from the interviews. The functional characteristics of e-bikes, particularly greater speed and acceleration than conventional bicycles with less exertion, contribute to several positive aspects of their use, including enabling more people to bicycle, more trips to be made by bicycle, and more fun for their users. The result, for these users, was an overall decrease in driving, with some users getting rid of their car altogether. Negative aspects cited by users include security concerns, safety concerns, unwieldiness, and range anxiety. Participants also discussed several misperceptions on the part of non-users that could inhibit their adoption. These results provide insights for the development of e-bike policy and guidance for future research

E Bikes Use in China
The rapid adoption of electric bikes (e-bikes) (~150 million in 10 years) has come with debate over their role in China's urban transportation system. While there has been some research quantifying impacts of e-bikes on the transportation system, there has been little work tracking e-bike use patterns over time. This paper investigates e-bike use over a 6-year period. Four bi-annual travel diary surveys of e-bike users were conducted between 2006 and 2012 in Kunming, China. Choice models were developed to investigate factors influencing mode-transition and motorization pathways. As expected, income and vehicle ownership strongly influence car-based transitions. Younger and female respondents were more likely to choose car-based modes. Systematic and unobserved changes over time (time-dynamics) favor car-based modes, with the exception of previous car users who already shifted away from cars being less likely to revert to cars over time. E-bikes act as an intermediate mode, interrupting the transition from bicycle to bus and from bus to car. Over 6 years, e-bikes are displacing prospective bus (65→55%), car/taxi (15→24%) and bicycle (19→7%) trips. Over 40% of e-bike riders now have household car access so e-bikes are effectively replacing many urban car trips

Swiss E Bikes Research
Modal shifts hold considerable potential to mitigate carbon emissions. Electric bikes (e-bikes) represent a promising energy- and carbon-efficient alternative to cars. However, as mobility behaviour is highly habitual, convincing people to switch from cars to e-bikes is challenging. One strategy to accomplish this is the disruption of existing habits—a key idea behind an annual e-bike promotion programme in Switzerland, in which car owners can try out an e-bike for free over a two-week period in exchange for their car keys. By means of a longitudinal survey, we measured the long-term effects of this trial on mobility-related habitual associations. After one year, participants' habitual association with car use had weakened significantly. This finding was valid both for participants who bought an e-bike after the trial and those who did not. Our findings contrast the results of other studies who find that the effect of interventions to induce modal shifts wears off over time. We conclude that an e-bike trial has the potential to break mobility habits and motivate car owners to use more sustainable means of transport


Swiss Intervention design
The annual Bike4Car programme in Switzerland seeks to break car drivers' habitual behaviour. In this programme, organised by a Swiss environmental nongovernmental organisation (NGO), car owners are offered a free trial of an e-bike over a 2 week period in exchange for their car keys. In 2015 Bike4Car was implemented in collaboration with bike retailers making e-bikes available to the participants; the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, which supported the programme with an intense national ad campaign (TV, internet and posters); and 32 cities responsible for local promotion. Between May and September 2015, 1854 car owners participated in Bike4Car. After the end of the programme, participants were offered a coupon to purchase an e-bike for a reduced price. Reductions varied by retailer. The largest participating retailer offered a reduction of 500 CHF (approx. 425 Euro), covering around 20%–25% of the price of an e-bike. By November 2015 10% of participants used their coupon to buy an e-bike



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