Experiences of Electric Bicycle Users in the Davis/Sacramento, California Area

For this project, the authors interviewed 27 electric bicycle (e-bike) users in the Sacramento/Davis, California area. They found three significant benefits relative to conventional bicycles: functionality (speed, acceleration, ability to carry cargo), adherence to green values, and enabling bicycle transportation to be feasible for more people, and more trips. E-bikes are faster than conventional bicycles, so e-bike users can cut down commute time and ride more frequently than if they were using a conventional bicycle. The ease of acceleration makes obeying stop signs and riding uphill less onerous and provides e-bike users with more confidence interacting with automobiles. E-bikes also provide an option for green transportation for people who can’t or don’t wish to participate in conventional bicycling. Finally, they enable people with certain disabilities, illness, symptoms of aging, or time constraint, to continue to bike. The barriers to the expansion of e-bike ridership are high cost, heavy weight, lack of safe infrastructure (unsafe roads and communities, and lack of emergency charging), and policy (separated bike paths are not open to e-bikes) . However, those barriers could be overcome with government and business interventions, if expansion of e-bike mode share is a desired outcome.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANF20 Bicycle Transportation.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Gordon, Elizabeth
  • Shao, Zhenying
  • Xing, Yan
  • 0000-0003-1173-1872
  • Wang, Yunshi
  • 0000-0001-5224-3408
  • Handy, Susan
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2013-1-13 to 2013-1-17
• Date: 2013

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 17p
• Monograph Title: TRB 92nd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Benefits; Bicycles; Costs; Cyclists; Speed; Travel time; Weight
• Uncontrolled Terms: Barriers (Challenges); Bicycle safety
• Subject Areas: Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01473376
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 13-1709
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 21 2013 9:10AM