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The E-Bike Potential: How E-Bikes Can Improve Sustainable Transportation
The electric bicycle (e-bike) is a recently introduced mode of travel that is rapidly gaining in popularity throughout the United States. The e-bike can offer a cheaper alternative to car travel and can provide users with an adequate level of physical activity intensity necessary to enhance health. Riding an e-bike is rewarding and fun, is freeing for users with limited ability and mobility, and can even lead to a car-free household. It can be a useful tool to reduce CO2 emissions, urban noise and air pollution, and inner city traffic. Lastly, e-bikes encourage users to cycle farther and more often than conventional bicycles, meaning that they offer the opportunity to multiply the benefits already obtained by conventional cycling.
This project explores the potential e-bike effect on person miles traveled (PMT) and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in terms of CO2 for varying levels of e-bike mode share replacement. In addition, a white paper presents how e-bike incentive programs are being developed around the world and how they can be used to expand the market.