Bikes, e-bikes and health

E-bike impacts on health

What do 11 UK pilot schemes tell us about the contribution of e-bikes to the health agenda? By studying the usage and impacts of 200 bikes in 11 diverse shared settings, the UK Department for Transport Shared Electric Bike Programme has provided important new information about the contribution of electric assist bikes to the drive to improve health. This presentation will provide highlights of the lessons learnt from user surveys, GPS tracking and project reports including: 
How e-bikes encourage new riders to start or return to cycling 
How e-bikes encourage modal shift from inactive modes to bikes
How e-bikes support active lifestyles for those with disabilities or health challenges
How e-bikes contribute to mental health
The presentation will explore to what extent new bike share scheme include e-bikes either as part or all of the fleet and the practicalities of this strategy. 

Antonia Roberts, BikePlus

Comparing eBike and SmartBike sharing

In October 2016, Exeter saw the introduction of Co-Bikes on its streets. It was the first bike sharing scheme in the United Kingdom with a full fleet of electric bicycles by nextbike that can be recharged at any temperature and weather conditions in specially designed docks.Within the first few weeks we noticed the different patterns in usage of the eBikes (term that nextbike uses when referring to electric bicycles) and the SmartBikes (nextbike’s name for the normal bicycles). One of the main differences was the distance travelled by the bicycles. In a normal scheme, these varied between 1.5 – 2.5km per trip, whereas for Co-Bikes this distance stood at around 6km. This is 3-4 times longer than usual. Whilst this number can change over time, can we expect that journeys will be longer? Why? Among similarities we witness the importance of public transportation hubs such as train stations in the scheme. Is this yet another proof that bike sharing is an important part of customer final mile journey? Can this lead to a policy change for cities aiming to improve their cities for businesses? A case study exploring  whether hybrid systems could increase the efficiency of bike sharing schemes in the United Kingdom

Aivis Indans, nextbike UK

Pedal and pedelec usage

Oxonbikes is a public bike-sharing scheme in Oxford, originally setup in 2013 and now developed to provide 80 bikes over 15 locations. In June 2016 the existing automated pedal bike scheme was supplemented with 24 specialist ebikes (pedelecs), charged and managed from the same docking stations, creating the first hybrid pedal ebike scheme in the UK. The stations link the many health trust and university campus locations in the City, and the pedelecs have created new opportunities for travel that the pedal bikes could not support, in terms of trip distance and ease of effort. The data collected through the project has enabled a direct comparison of pedel and pedelec usage and its impact on the customer base, and this research has been key in better understanding the role of pedelecs in the shared transport field.

Tim Caswell, Managing Director, Hourbike