Most people agree: Biking uphill is no fun. So cities with steep terrain looking to reduce congestion and ease transportation costs are putting electric bikes on the road. Projects to launch “e-bike” share programs are gaining momentum.
In Lisbon, Portugal, for example, the municipal transportation company Emel backed a €23 million project that introduced more than 60 e-bikes in June. It plans to expand to 940. “[E]-bikes solve the problem of hills but they also give you more range,” Pedro Machado of Emel told The Guardian. “[I]t captures people who would not be able to use a normal bike.”
As part of a University of California, Berkeley study, the private company Social Bicycles launched a pilot e-bike share service in famously steep San Francisco, California, USA last year. And in Park City, Utah, USA, local governments launched the country's first all-electric bike share program in July.
“Greater Park City is really this outdoor-recreation-oriented, traditionally rural community that faces urban issues because we have so many visitors each year,” says Caroline Rodriguez, project lead and Summit County regional transportation planning director, Park City, Utah, USA. (Summit County contains Park City.)
When the project team initially started researching how to ease demand on the county's transportation system, a bike-sharing program seemed like a no-brainer. But the team soon realized traditional bikes wouldn't work: Residents and tourists would be reluctant to use them for transportation in the area's tough terrain. “We knew we needed electric bikes, so people would actually use them,” she says.
An electric bike from the Summit Bike Share program in Park City, Utah, USA
The team felt strongly that e-bikes—which can hit speeds up to 14 miles (22.5 kilometers) per hour—appealed to a broader population, including those with limited mobility. “We have a county employee who had two kidney transplants in a year, and she never thought she'd be back on a bike,” Ms. Rodriguez says. “But now, she can ride.”
On the downside, e-bikes cost more than traditional bikes and require charging stations. (The bikes in Park City can travel 60 miles, or 97 kilometers, between charges.) To help fund its project, Summit County launched a joint venture with Canadian e-bike-sharing service provider Bewegen.
In Lisbon, Portugal, the municipal transportation company Emel backed a
€23 million
project that introduced more than 60 e-bikes in June. It plans to expand to 940.
So far, so good: “Our per capita usage levels in Summit County are now approaching those of bike shares in Paris and Montreal,” Ms. Rodriguez says. And the county is planning to expand its program up to 150 bikes this year, with the possibility of even more on the horizon. —Kate Rockwood