The use of a bike, even with pedal assistance, as an alternative to a car has been shown to save emissions and costs in Canada. A decision that would also lessen traffic.

Arrive at the neighbourhood school, head to the bakery, and find the closest newsstand. Brief daily excursions, for which an electric or conventional bicycle is perfect. Leaving your automobile (either conventional or electric) in the garage actually has a big positive impact on the environment. A recent study by researchers at the Polytechnic University of Montreal, Canada, supports this. It shows that an electric city car emits about 70 grammes of greenhouse gas emissions per kilometre driven, an e-bike emits about 13 grammes, and a bicycle produces about 10 to 12 grammes. This indicates that choosing two wheels over e-cars might lower emissions by 82 to 85%.

A study including 4,000 participants

Similar findings were obtained by researchers at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom in a study they did in 2021. According to Professor Christian Brand, one of the work’s authors, “replacing cars with bicycles or e-bikes is one way to effectively and quickly reduce emissions.” “As many as 50% of car journeys are, in fact, less than five kilometres and could therefore easily be made on two wheels.” During a two-year period, Brand et al. observed around 4,000 individuals residing in London, Antwerp, Barcelona, Vienna, Orebro, Rome, and Zurich.

The participants filled out unique travel diaries, listing every route they took every day. Those who frequently ride their bikes generate 84% less emissions than those who use other forms of transportation, according to many calculations.

Additionally, only converting one day a week from driving a car to riding a bike may save emissions by 3.2 kg, which is the same as reducing emissions from 800 emails or 10 km drive in a car.

When the researchers evaluated the life cycle of each mode of transportation (manufacturing, fuel, and vehicle disposal), they discovered that riding a bike might result in emissions that are over 30 times lower per trip than driving a conventional automobile and around 10 times lower than driving an electric car.

Reduced traffic and increased savings

Choosing to pedal instead of ride on four wheels has obvious financial benefits as well. According to a report written by Decisio, a research institution focused on the transportation and environmental sectors, a family with two automobiles will ultimately spend over 370 thousand euros on purchases and maintenance over the course of 60 years. Over 150 thousand euros would be saved if one of the two automobiles were swapped out for an e-bike.

In addition to the outlay, road congestion would obviously also decrease. Suffice it to say that in the three busiest cities in the United Kingdom (London, Manchester, Birmingham) the average speed during rush hours is less than 15 miles per hour, while in the three busiest cities in the Netherlands (Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Utrech), in where the bicycle is the protagonist, the speed during rush hour is above 20 miles per hour.

Cities Must Adopt Wise E-Bike Policies

Smart policies are supporting the e-bike boom in certain locations. Consider California, which enacted a model law that classifies E-bikes into three categories based on their power, speed, and pedal assistance status. To control safety, these markings can be used to place restrictions on the usage of e-bikes on highways and walkways. E-bike use is booming in Colorado, where model legislation has already been implemented, as well as in areas like San Francisco. Globally, they are thriving in several other places as well as Berlin, Germany, and Taipei, Taiwan.

E-bikes Have a Lot To Offer Cities

Cars take up far less room on the roadways when drivers convert to E-bikes, which reduces traffic. Most places allow motorcycles to utilise bike lanes, thus riders may totally bypass a traffic jam. E-bikes work best on the streets in some cities, where they can zoom past rows of stationary autos.

According to a study by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, switching from cars to bicycles and E-bikes would save $128 trillion and reduce emissions by 47% when compared to business as usual. Bicycles and E-bikes will account for 22% of urban passenger travel distance globally by 2050, up from about 7% today. Not to mention noise pollution: Reducing the cacophony of traffic and vehicle horns in a crowded city may significantly improve the comfort and standard of living for residents.