E-bikes are revolutionising European cities. Why is the UK not following their example?

We have grown used to cars dominating city life. Having to put up with the resulting emissions, air pollution, road deaths and noise just seems the natural order of things. But, if you look to Europe, many cities have managed to loosen the tight grip cars have on them. In Amsterdam, half of all journeys are done by bike (as opposed to 2.5 per cent in London), and in Copenhagen, 41 per cent of people cycle to work or school.

In cities like these, e-bikes have become mainstream and play an essential part in broadening access to cycling, with all demographics embracing them for everyday mobility – from grocery shopping to commuting. They’re quick and convenient, relatively cheap and have been shown to improve physical and even mental health.

There is also a vast body of research that shows that cycling (e-assisted or not) can solve some of our most pressing problems. Greater uptake would help to reduce CO2 emissions to slow global heating, lessen air pollution, stop cities from grinding to a halt and lessen health issues caused by inactivity, which are crippling the NHS.

Yet in the UK only an estimated 60,000 e-bikes sold in 2018, compared to the 1 million in the Netherlands, where they now outsell standard bikes. In Germany, 920,000 were sold in the first six months of 2019 alone. Here, a third of households either own one, or plan to buy one in the next 12 months. So why is the UK lagging so far behind other European countries when it comes to making the most of this technology?

A bit like internet dating, e-bikes emerged in the Nineties and have gone from being embarrassing to completely normal in countries with a big uptake. Long gone are bulky engines that look like biscuit tins stuck to the back wheel. Smaller batteries and motors are now often integrated into the bicycle frame, resulting in lighter and slicker-looking e-bikes. While they still tend to be heavier, the lightest weigh only 11kg and don’t even look like e-bikes.

From stylish designer versions to folding and mountain e-bikes, manufacturers have brought out a wide range of products that cater to all demographics. E-cargo bikes are also increasingly used to get around with children as well as for deliveries by local businesses.

E-bike legislation was brought in in the UK in line with EU law in 2015, allowing anybody over 14 to use an electrically assisted pedal cycle, as long as it has a maximum power of 250W and the electrical assistance cuts out at speeds over 15mph. Some bikes also come with starting assistance, but once the bike is going, the e-assistance only kicks in when you are pedalling. Most bikes allow you to choose how much support you would like. There are also so-called speed pedelecs, which can assist you up to speeds of 30mph, but these require a driving license, motorbike helmet and can’t go on cycle paths.

open image in gallery

While in countries like the Netherlands and Germany cycling is mainly seen as a way of getting around, in the UK, it’s considered a sport. Only 5-7 per cent of the population cycle regularly, with about three-quarters of cyclists being men, many of whom do so to make an effort to stay fit. In other European countries, e-bikes – together with a safer cycling infrastructure – have helped to shift this demographic and allowed many more to benefit from cycling

And while cycling with an e-bike may not be as much of a workout as cycling on a conventional bike, studies show that people who use e-bikes tend to use them more and for longer trips, meaning they do more exercise overall.

E-bikes have also shown to improve wellbeing and cognitive function in older adults and can also help people with mobility issues get around. Isabelle Clement, director of Wheels for Wellbeing, uses an e-assisted hand-cycle to commute. “Until I had the e-version I never cycled in traffic, because I didn’t have the confidence to get up a hill, or get started and keep up with the traffic. Getting the e-version got rid of all the anxiety and means I get 50 minutes of exercise a day, which I wouldn’t otherwise.”

She believes that more awareness and better access to specialised e-bikes could be of huge benefit to other people with mobility issues. She says, “People with disabilities are the furthest away from cycling, but also the ones who could benefit the most – they tend to be less physically active and more isolated and die younger as a result. They have a lot to gain from better access to cycling.”

open image in gallery

Of course, beyond benefits to the individuals, e-bikes have the potential to lessen our dependence on cars. Studies have shown that people who were loaned an e-bike reduced their car usage by 20 per cent, even in the short term. A greater uptake would also reduce the UK’s air pollution problems – in London alone, 2 million people are living with illegal levels of toxic air, including 400,000 children.

And while urban populations are increasing – unlike space for cars – pedelecs could help to keep cities moving. Traffic speeds in London are now at only 7.4mph, which is almost 2mph slower than they were less than 10 years ago. But to get a true feel for the capacity of bicycles to transform cities – e-assisted or otherwise – you have to spend some time in a cycle city. They feel human-centred, cleaner, more spacious and calmer. Here, getting from one place to another is pleasant and relaxing, rather than a stressful chore.

But, despite the potential, due to a lack of awareness most people in the UK have never even considered using an e-bike. For the ones that have, the purchasing cost is significant. It ranges from a few hundred to a few thousand with the typical cost of acquisition over £1,000. To combat this, many European countries offer subsidies, including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. The UK Bicycle Association has analysed these schemes and concludes that a £250 subsidy per e-bike in the UK would not only be highly effective to get people cycling, but also benefit the economy.

However, everybody interviewed agreed that a big obstacle to more people cycling was the lack of safe infrastructure, including cycle parking and segregated cycle lanes. The majority of people simply feel that it’s too dangerous to cycle on roads.

Simon Munk, infrastructure campaigner at the London Cycling Campaign, says: “We’re seeing a massive shift in micro-mobility and e-bikes broaden access and remove structural issues. In France and Germany, the use of all bicycles is exploding where they invest in cycle infrastructure. I think it’s clear that a lot of cities across the world are struggling now and are thinking ‘we should have done this a long time ago’. The question is why there are some cities in the UK that are still not doing anything, despite massive air quality and public health issues and of course the climate crisis – we have 8.5 years to make drastic cuts to emissions.”

open image in gallery

Does he think the UK’s rain, hills and narrow historic roads are a deterrent? “No, much of Northern Europe has similar rain and wind levels to the UK and cycling is very big in Scandinavia. In parts of Norway people cycle 10 times as much as in London. Tromso has a lot of cycling. Likewise, narrow streets are the same in all historic towns. It’s a question of cities being willing to filter roads. The Netherlands, for example, have been much bolder in allocating space to bicycles.”

In fact, 35,000km of dedicated cycle lanes span the Netherlands, which have turned it into one of the top cycle nations in the world, with more bicycles (23 million) than people (17 million). However, this wasn’t always the case. Just like in most other western countries, cars took over Dutch roads in the 1950s and 1960s when ownership became affordable for the masses. Also here, people abandoned their bikes, not just in favour of cars, but also because cars had made roads dangerous.

But in the Netherlands in the Seventies, people took to the streets to protest against the high number of child deaths on the roads. This led governments to focus on road safety, which made Dutch cities more people-friendly, while in the UK the government discouraged cycling and encouraged motoring through tax concessions, for example, for company cars.

open image in gallery

Public pressure is still highly effective when it comes to pushing for change. Munk says: “In Walthamstow, there was a big campaign by cyclists, who fought very hard for safer streets. Politicians acted on it and increased road safety and made three boroughs more people and cycle-friendly by implementing the Mini Holland scheme. We see a big rise in consciousness across London. People realise that we need to do something very different here. It’s the interaction between campaigns backed by the public as well as the political will and vision to make it happen.”

Elly Blue, author of Bikenomics: How Bicycling Can Serve the Economy, agrees. “I’ve noticed that popular movements are an essential ingredient to bicycling taking hold in any place,” she says. “You need a friendly politician to champion the work and an amenable transportation agency to carry it out, but these two things are not effective, or at least not in a meaningful way, without the mandate provided by vocal and organised activists, who can write their demands large through protests and other highly visible campaigns.”

However, many car drivers react angrily when more road space is allocated to cycling. Tom Bogdanowicz, senior policy and development officer at the London Cycling Campaign, says: “Rationality is countered by car advertising, which runs at half a billion pounds. People are persuaded by adverts that show cars driving across expanses of roads and deserts. So they get frustrated because they purchased something for an awful lot of money that symbolises freedom and status and all that happens is that they sit in traffic.”

open image in gallery

Nicholas Scott, assistant professor of sociology at Simon Fraser University in Canada and author of Assembling Moral Mobilities: Cycling, Cities and the Common Good, thinks the cause of wealthy, English-speaking countries’ “cycling stuntedness” is political and cultural. He says: “London’s car culture is fascinating. I used to think that automobility’s power in North America centred on the fact that most of its cities were built after the automobile arrived at the beginning of the 20th century, so the car didn’t have to un-build the existent, streetcar/horse and buggy city. But some old cities, such as London, still embraced automobility.

“Capitalism expanded through Fordism, an economic system, literally, built through and around automobility,” he says. “There is a connection today between wealthy Anglophone nations’ relatively extreme capitalism and the power of multinational automotive corporations, hydrocarbon industries and their political backers on both sides of the political spectrum. This ‘system of automobility’ includes not simply the car but also the streets, superhighways, suburbs, big box stores, parking lots, petrol stations, oil refineries, and diverse public and private institutions that underpin, subsidise and profit from the reproduction and expansion of car travel at the expense of other, more sustainable modes like cycling.”

Although the UK car industry is declining, it is still estimated to contribute £20.2bn to the economy. A report commissioned by the Bicycle Association found that cycling-related business contributes £5.4bn to the economy each year – three times more than the steel industry. Of course, this is clearly not as big as the automotive industry, but these figures don’t take into account the cost of air pollution, climate change, travel route, noise, road wear, health and congestion. A study by Lund University and the University of Queensland have tried to do just that. They found that when considering the costs to, and benefits for society, one kilometre driven by car in Copenhagen, costs €0.15, whereas society “earns” €0.16 for every kilometre cycled. They concluded that “the cost-benefit analysis in Copenhagen shows that investments in cycling infrastructure and bike-friendly policies are economically sustainable and give high returns”.

Luckily, attitudes in the UK also seem to be shifting. Halfords reports that 61 per cent of respondents to one of their surveys said they would be comfortable riding an e-bike and predicts a 30 per cent increase in sales. The government is also becoming more proactive. Since June, they are encouraging the purchase of e-bikes as part of the cycle to work scheme (previously this was believed to be capped at £1,000, which excluded most e-bikes) and Scotland is providing interest-free loans for the purchase of e-bikes. There are various electric cycle hire schemes in London, and initial uptake seems encouraging.

Of course, e-bikes are not as comfortable as self-driving electric cars, nor as exciting as futuristic transport solutions, such as Elon Musk’s hyperloop tunnels that might, one day, transport people in capsules through vacuum-sealed tubes. But they are a lot more realistic in the short term. According to Steve Garidis, the executive director of the Bicycle Association: “They are the only viable electrical vehicle for mass uptake. When it comes to cost, maturity and infrastructure requirements, they’re the only game in town.”