Modal Shifting Effects and Climate Impacts through Electric Bicycle Use in Germany

摘要

Salesrates of electric bicycles (e-bikes) have grown rapidly over the last tenyears, not only in Germany but all over Europe. Thus, the strongest movementtowards electric mobility on German roads is yet dominantly pushed by e-bikes,whereas electric cars need to catch up. So far, there are hardly any reliableinvestigations about everyday use patterns, modal shift effects and potentialsto reduce climate impact. An assessment of the significance of e-bikes forachieving climate and energy policy guidelines from the "German FederalGovernment’s National Energy Concept" from 2010 has not been possible sofar. The project "Pedelection" analysed these questions by conductinga field test focused on people who purchased their e-bike only recently. Themain finding from the field test is that e-bikes have the potential tosubstitute a considerable amount of car mileage. Since the climate balance ofdistance travelled by e-bikes is by factor 10 better, additional inducedtraffic or shifting from bicycle/walking is negligible to a certain degree.Bicycles – with or without electric assistance – are serious means of transportand a genuine alternative to passenger cars on short and medium distances up to15 km.