UK ministers urged to promote e-bikes to tackle health and climate crises
Ministers should consider subsidising e-bikes as they do electric cars, campaigners have urged, after a study found that mass use of such bikes could create more than £2bn in health benefits and cut a million tonnes of emissions annually.
While grants of up to £1,500 are available for low-emission cars, vans and motorbikes, there is no such assistance for electric-assist bikes, which help propel riders up to a maximum powered speed of 15mph when the bike is being pedalled.
According to an evidence review by academics at Westminster University, commissioned by the campaign group Bike is Best, boosting e-bike use would bring other benefits not created by electric cars, including reduced road congestion and fewer potentially dangerous particulates from tyre and brake wear.
E-bikes have become increasingly common in the UK, but sales are still well below levels seen in many other European countries, where studies have shown they are particularly popular with older riders and with women.
The study included polling that shows 67% of Britons who might be interested in buying an e-bike are put off by the price. But of these, the poll said, 53% would be likely to buy one if there was a hypothetical subsidy of £250 on a £1,000 model.
The study used the Department for Transport’s so-called propensity to cycle tool, based on detailed data about work trips and used to inform decisions on cycling schemes, to calculate that mass bike infrastructure and access to e-bikes could prompt up to 25% of commuting trips to be made by bike.
Such a switch would produce overall economic health benefits in England and Wales of £2.2bn a year, most of this coming from better health due to e-bike use, but also because of lower levels of staff absence
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