Report finds e-bike incentives are worth the investment

Electric bicycle rebates have exploded in reputation in North America as transportation planners attempt to get folks out of their automobiles and into more healthy, extra climate-friendly alternate options. Nevertheless, there’s restricted understanding of the total impacts of those incentives.

Are new biking habits sustainable? Who advantages most from these incentives? And are they value the price?

Researchers at UBC’s Research on Lively Transportation (REACT) Lab have some solutions. They surveyed individuals in an e-bike incentive program provided by the District of Saanich, B.C. and located that the majority new e-bike customers continued to commonly use their bikes as an alternative choice to automobile journey, even a yr after buy. Low-income households diminished their automobile journeys and decreased carbon emissions probably the most. And incentives are a cheap means of decreasing carbon emissions.

The Saanich program, obtainable in 2021 and 2022, provided three completely different rebates to offset the price of new e-bikes, relying on one’s earnings. The essential rebate amounted to $350, whereas the lowest-income households might obtain as much as $1,600.

Outcomes confirmed a big surge in e-bike adoption, with 93% of customers being new to e-bikes, and 60% new to biking altogether.

One yr after buy, customers continued to be glad with their e-bikes, integrating them into their routines for 3 to 4 days per week. They diminished weekly automobile journey by a mean of 48 kilometers per week, a discount of 30–40%.

“The incentive not only encouraged people to switch to e-bikes, it also resulted in remarkable changes in travel behavior that persisted long after the purchase,” mentioned Dr. Alex Bigazzi, principal investigator and affiliate professor of civil engineering at UBC who leads REACT.

The incentives had the best impression on lower-income teams. Amongst those that obtained the $1,600 incentive, eight out of 10 wouldn’t have bought an e-bike with out it, in comparison with simply two out of 10 who obtained the $350 incentive.

With much less driving, customers diminished their travel-related greenhouse fuel (GHG) emissions by a mean of 16 kilograms of CO₂ per week, one yr after shopping for their e-bikes. Notably, those that obtained the largest incentives diminished automobile use and carbon emissions probably the most.

“The larger incentives aimed at lower-income families did a great job getting new riders in the saddle and gave them a lower-cost alternative to using their cars,” Dr. Bigazzi mentioned.

A standard criticism of e-bike incentives is their excessive value relative to their local weather advantages, however the Saanich program was aggressive with different transportation subsidies in Canada at a value of roughly $190 to $720 per metric ton of GHG emissions.

“This suggests that e-bike incentives are more cost-effective in reducing emissions compared to electric car incentives, and that’s without including a range of cycling-related benefits such as increased physical activity, reduced local air pollutants and decreased travel costs,” Dr. Bigazzi mentioned.

The REACT Lab has partnered with the Province of B.C. and different researchers to check the provincewide e-bike incentive program. The broader scope will permit researchers to have a look at components together with variations in local weather and terrain and the provision of protected biking routes, to higher perceive their influences.