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Jul 07, 2024
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E-bike ownership skews young, as does participation in bike share programs, while conventional bike ownership skews toward affluent, educated men.
A recent study considered whether there was a relationship between income level and whether an individual owned an e-bike or an “acoustic” bike—a regular, non-motorized bike, that is. The research, published in the Journal of Transport and Health, focused on the population of Sydney, produced some surprising findings.
Young adults aged 25-34 were found to have the highest rate of ownership of e-bikes as well as the highest rate of participation in bike share programs. They also had a lower rate of conventional bike ownership.
Regular bike ownership skewed toward those who were male, young, highly educated and affluent. No surprise there.
The study found that factors such as being foreign-born, paying rent (rather than a mortgage) and living in an apartment reduced the likelihood of owning a bike, whether conventional or electric.
The results of the study aren’t especially surprising, but having confirmed what we might have guessed by visiting a local bike path for an hour or two, it’s fair to ask what conclusions the study’s authors drew.
Their results, they say, suggest a need for financial incentives, such as rebate programs. They also believe that increasing bike storage facilities would help encourage more e-bike use. They encourage the expansion of bike share programs because they help to address hurdles to private ownership, and they emphasized the need for them to remain affordable.
These findings, while no great newsflash, are helpful because it takes what many of us see anecdotally and moves it into more objective data, which can be helpful to governments when deciding where to allocate funds.
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