April 23, 2024 - E-bikes are growing in popularity in cities, especially as they become more affordable and accessible with the support of financial incentives and bikeshare programs. E-bikes can substitute for high-polluting, high-speed cars and two-wheelers, covering longer-distance trips with less effort compared to conventional bicycles. At the same time, safety concerns and standards for e-bikes need to be considered.
ITDP’s new report, E-bikes: Charging Toward Compact Cycling Cities, provides the first global overview of how e-bikes are being used and their potential for passenger and freight transport. It also evaluates barriers that limit e-bike use in different contexts, and what cities and national governments can do to ramp up access to and use of e-bikes to achieve broader sustainable transport goals.
Join us for the Webinar E-bikes: Charging Toward Compact Cycling Cities on Wednesday, April 24 at 9 am EST. In this webinar, we will dive into these concepts with an overview of the report and its recommendations, and hear about the potential for e-bikes in Kenya and Indonesia.
Register here.
About the Report
Electric bikes, or e-bikes, are close substitutes for cars and two-wheelers because they cover longer distances with less effort. Thus, e-bikes will play a key role in shifting passenger and freight trips away from high-polluting private vehicles and generating fewer emissions if used at scale. While vehicle electrification has focused primarily on large, high-polluting vehicles like buses, trucks, and cars, electrification of bicycles has been largely overlooked as a critical and promising climate and mobility strategy.
As a result, many countries and cities have not yet clearly defined what e-bikes are, what quality standards they must meet, and where they can be used safely and efficiently. This report, developed with support from the Climateworks Foundation, aims to define ‘e-bikes’ and evaluate how and where they are being used, the benefits and challenges to widespread adoption, and the ways in which governments can respond to their growing popularity.
