A research on the potential of the electric bike

In this research, the potential of the electric bike to reduce car use in commuter traffic has been investigated. The electric bike (E-bike) can be used instead of other - more polluting - ways of transport and / or instead of ways of transport which are more negative in terms of traffic congestion. When I talk about an E-bike in this report I mean actually a pedal electric cycle (pedelec). With the use of a pilot study, it was possible to collect the necessary data. The pilot study is part of the project “De E-fiets, proberen is overtuigen”. Employees of nine large companies in Rotterdam, who normally use another transport mean for commuter traffic, had the possibility to try the E-bike for one week in the pilot period on voluntary basis. Most important general conclusions of the investigation are as follow. 58% of the participants used the bicycle for a commuter trip distance up to 7.5 kilometer and 29% of the participants used the bicycle for all distances. 38% of the participants travel by car and 16% using public transport. The average commuter trip distance of the participants, who find that the E-bike is a transport mean with which they can fulfill their daily commuter trip, is 13.0 kilometer. Of the people who now use the bicycle for commuter traffic is the average trip distance 9.2 kilometer. This means that the distance that the participants are willing to travel is 1.41 times so long as commute with a normal bicycle.