ELECTRIC BICYCLE TRANSIT CONNECTION PILOT PROJECT In partnership with the Transportation Research and Education Center of Portland State University and Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Drive Oregon’s electric bicycle pilot sought to make findings on how electric bicycles were perceived by study participants, and to test whether a folding electric bicycle could be a reliable transportation option when paired with public transportation. The electric bicycle chosen for
the study through a public request for proposals process was a Currie iZip E3 Compact. The primary cri- teria for the bicycle selected were that the bike was foldable and have a peddle-assist cadence electric assist function. The project took place between
April 2014 and September 2015 in the Portland region on three Kaiser Permanente Northwest campuses. Employees were issued an electric bicycle for 10 weeks to use for a variety of transportation needs, but especially focusing on first-/last- mile commuting combined with pub- lic transit. Participants were asked to complete surveys before, during, and after use of the electric bicycle. The program consisted of six
cohorts of participants of about 30 employees each at the three regional campuses in a different part of the Portland metropolitan area. Cohorts participated in the study for 10 weeks. Before the study, about 45 per cent of participants had biked in the past month and cited as barriers to bik- ing more often being: bad weather (50 per cent), logistics (41 per cent), the need to carry more than the bike could handle (36 per cent), sweat (32 per cent) and hills (29 per cent). Electric bicycles are particularly well-suited to address the last two concerns; sweat and hills.
RESULTS Results from the participant surveys
were analyzed using statistical soft- ware and GIS. Results showed that participants biked farther, were more confident, and generally per- ceived fewer barriers to making trips due to the ease in overcoming hills and reducing sweat. The study found that “over half of the respond- ents (56 per cent) reported using the electric bicycle to commute to work at least once a week, and over a fifth (22 per cent) used the bike three or more times per week.” Even better, “overall, the number of people com- muting to work by bicycle at least once per week more than doubled during the study.” Overall, bike confidence increased throughout the pilot with 28 per cent showing a greater confidence while only 13 per cent indicated a decreas- ing confidence at the end of the 10 weeks. Participants felt that the electric bicycles “were comfortable (89 per cent), fun (92 per cent) and easy to use overall (93 per cent).” They also felt safe (92 per cent) and more comfortable in traffic (67 per cent) compared to standard bikes and had an overall positive experi- ence (75 per cent rated the experi- ence as good or very good, versus only 4 per cent reporting poor or very poor). The study suggests that electric bicycles do enable users to bike more often, and increase the fre- quency of biking even for people who previously rode a conventional bicycle as part of their commute. Electric bicycles are also enabling those who might otherwise not bike because of physical limitations or proximity to their destinations to use a bicycle for their transporta- tion needs2
.
SIMILAR INITIATIVES Other regions and cities across the country are examining other aspects of two-wheeled urban transporta- tion such as mobile electric bicycle sharing. Solar Oakland, a community
partnership to bring sustainable urban transportation via solar-pow- ered electric bicycles and scooters to Oakland, California, launched a pilot program in January 2016. The pilot program brought eight solar-powered bicycles to Jack London Square in south Oakland. The electric bicycles were provided by Mahindra GenZe and housed in a custom-built solar-powered charg- ing station from DC Solar. The pilot program allows commercial resi- dents daily use of the electric bicy- cles so that they can experience and explore Oakland in a new way. Bike Solar Oakland is collecting data on the bicycles, the solar panel power, and how the station is being utilized, and hopes to expand the pilot project growing to ultimately serve larger transportation needs of Oakland3 Because solar-powered and elec-
.
tric bicycles can be an important part of existing sustainable transit models, providing residents with alternative, efficient, and sustain- able transportation options, inno- vative transportation projects like Bike Solar Oakland’s pilot program and the Portland electric bicycle pilot project serve both smart cit- ies: connected, urban, and thriving. Taken together, pilot projects like these pave the way for comprehen- sive campaigns to increase adop- tion of electric bicycles across the country - and to move them out of the realm of early adopters into an essential part of the urban trans- portation fabric.
CONCLUSION As cities become more urban and denser, they will need to create innovative and usable transporta- tion solutions - and electric bicycles are primed to become a large piece of that puzzle. Electric bicycles can reduce barriers to participa- tion in cycling. While barriers like hills and sweat stand in the way for many commuters to adopt bicycling
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Environment and Health in Transport
PORTLAND, OREGON
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