• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
13 Canadian Fossils Linked to Massive Losses in Western Wildfires May 29, 2023
Out-of-Control Wildfire Burns Homes, Forces Evacuations Outside Halifax May 29, 2023
Hamilton Plans Heat Bylaw for Rental Housing May 29, 2023
UK Traffic Calming Strategy Produces Solid Results, Manufactured Anxiety May 29, 2023
Community Wind Farm Earns Support, Generates Income in German Village May 29, 2023
Next
Prev

E-Bikes a ‘Faster and Fairer’ Emissions Solution than Electric Cars

August 15, 2022
Reading time: 2 minutes

David Hawgood/Geograph

David Hawgood/Geograph

20
SHARES
 

On every energy transition metric that matters, e-bikes leave electric vehicles (EVs) behind in the dust, and policy-makers currently swooning over the latter must take note, says Canadian sustainable design expert Lloyd Alter.

When the United States Conference of Mayors recently asked its 103 members to pick the “most promising technology for reducing energy use and carbon emissions in cities,” 53% picked “all-electric vehicles,” a category clearly referring only to cars and trucks. The vote reflected how few policy-makers understand that a mass uptake of e-bikes would make the energy transition both swifter and more fair, Alter writes, in a recent opinion piece for TreeHugger. 

  • Be among the first to read The Energy Mix Weekender
  • A brand new weekly digest containing exclusive and essential climate stories from around the world.
  • The Weekender:The climate news you need.
Subscribe

He adds that the Conference of Mayors referred to e-bikes not once in its 20 pages.

It’s a policy gap that does not exist in Europe, where policy-makers are promoting e-bikes “for use everywhere,” Alter says, citing recent research by the University of Leeds Institute for Transport Studies.

While 20 kilometres is the maximum distance that most people would be willing to ride an e-bike, that radius “puts 86% of the American population within range of e-bike use,” Alter writes. In that light, “the almost single-minded focus on e-cars seems so misguided when a faster and fairer approach would be to try to reduce the number of cars and make space for the safe and secure use of bikes and e-bikes.”

The Leeds study also explored the link between e-bikes and equity, with e-bikes so much cheaper to own and operate than four-wheeled EVs.

“Mass uptake of e-bikes” will also lead to “a significant early contribution” in reducing transport emissions, while asking much less of the power grid, the study found. E-bikes are a double boon to the grid because their home chargers run on existing circuits and draw “relatively low power (500 watts to 1400 watts).”

Sharing his own research into the matter, Alter writes that “a little Nissan Leaf carries enough electricity to fill 80 average e-bikes and a Ford Lightning could fill 300 of them.” While “a more sophisticated analysis would take their range into account,” he adds, “it is obvious that an e-bike moves a human a lot further per watt/hour.”

E-bikes also require less material and have lower manufacturing emissions than cars, the Leeds authors say. “An e-bike battery is only 1–2% of the size of an electric car battery, meaning less resource use per e-bike.” 



in Auto & Alternative Vehicles, Cities & Communities, Clean Electricity Grid, Community Climate Finance, Ending Emissions, Energy Access & Equity, UK & Europe, United States, Walking & Biking

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Neal Alderson/Twitter
Drought & Wildfires

Out-of-Control Wildfire Burns Homes, Forces Evacuations Outside Halifax

May 29, 2023
1.9k
York Region/flickr
Heat & Temperature

Hamilton Plans Heat Bylaw for Rental Housing

May 29, 2023
153
Jörg Möller/Pixabay
Cities & Communities

UK Traffic Calming Strategy Produces Solid Results, Manufactured Anxiety

May 29, 2023
49

Comments 1

  1. techgrade says:
    10 months ago

    The idea of the e-bike is very impressive. It is time-saving and also helpful for people who travel daily. It helps people a lot.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Neal Alderson/Twitter

Out-of-Control Wildfire Burns Homes, Forces Evacuations Outside Halifax

May 29, 2023
1.9k
Martin Davis/Facebook

13 Canadian Fossils Linked to Massive Losses in Western Wildfires

May 29, 2023
249
York Region/flickr

Hamilton Plans Heat Bylaw for Rental Housing

May 29, 2023
153
pixabay

Anti-Mob Laws to Prosecute Fossils, Kudos for Calgary, 113M Climate Refugees, Orcas Fight Back, and a Climate Dictionary

May 29, 2023
181

Waste Heat from Quebec Data Centre to Grow 80,000 Tonnes of Veggies Per Year

May 29, 2023
66
Inspiration 4 Photos/flickr

Cooling Upper Atmosphere Has Scientists ‘Very Worried’

May 23, 2023
304

Recent Posts

Jörg Möller/Pixabay

UK Traffic Calming Strategy Produces Solid Results, Manufactured Anxiety

May 29, 2023
49
kpgolfpro/Pixabay

Community Wind Farm Earns Support, Generates Income in German Village

May 29, 2023
45
Pexels/pixabay

Engineers Replace Sand in Concrete with Disposable Diapers

May 29, 2023
22
Sol y Playa condo, Rincón, Puerto Rico

Storms, Sea Level Rise Intensify Conflicts Over Public Beach Access

May 29, 2023
33

U.S. Megadrought Brings Private Water Brokers Into Focus

May 28, 2023
34
FMSC/Flickr

Waive Debt to Unlock Urgently Needed Adaptation Funds, Researchers Urge

May 27, 2023
30
Next Post
Max Pixel

Slashing Nitrogen Dioxide Pollution Can Improve Crop Yields, Study Finds

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}