Use it and keep it ? Insights from an e-bike trial program in Quebec

Abstract

As a low-carbon transportation mode, e-bikes are promising for the ecological transition of the transportation sector. Even though they are fairly common in several regions of the world, they are mainly used by "early adopters" in North America, particularly in the Quebec province of Canada. To evaluate the effectiveness of an e-bike trial in shifting people’s attitudes towards ebikes and the barriers that prevent them from e-cycling, we use the data from the Velovolt project in Québec. These include both pre- and post-surveys as well as GPS data. We find that the way participants actually used their e-bikes and the characteristics of their cycling environment had much more impact on their intention to buy an ebike than their socioeconomic characteristics. This shows that transport planners should favor the development of infrastructure and e-bike-trial programs to encourage e-bike adoption.