A new study just released entitled, ‘Do people who buy ebikes cycle more?’ has found the answer to be, ‘Yes, much more.’
The people who bought e-bikes increased their bicycle use from 2.1 kilometres to 9.2 kilometres on average per day, a 340% increase. The e-bike’s share of all their transportation increased dramatically too, from 17% to 49%, where they e-biked instead of walking, taking public transit, and driving.
The researchers call this the ‘e-bike effect,’ but worried that people might be riding so much because they just bought the bike and there is the novelty of it, so they are using it a lot, similar to what happens when people buy fancy gym equipment. They discounted this because in fact, people rode their e-bikes more the longer they had them and concluded, “It confirms previous findings indicating that people tend to go through a learning process where they discover new trip purposes for where to use the e-bike.”
The study was conducted in Norway by researchers Aslak Fyhri and Hanne Beate Sundfor.
This summary of the study was previously published at www.treehugger.com
