I WANT TO RIDE MY E-BICYCLE
Scots are seriously behind the rest of Europe in jumping on the e-bike bandwagon – but the potential benefits for national health should we do so are innumerable, finds Morag Bootland
The health benefits of e-bikes are innumerable – it's high time us Scots jumped on the bandwagon
My bike was a massive part of my childhood. Growing up in rural Scotland in the 1980s it gave me my freedom. Okay, so careering around forest tracks clinging to the handlebars of a chopper on the promise of seeing a dead badger might not have had a massive impact on the person I am today, but it was all part and parcel of growing up in the countryside. And the health benefits went some way to offsetting the huge number of Wham Bars I consumed.
But it’s been more years than I care to remember since I’ve pedalled anywhere at all. Living or working in the city is undoubtedly a factor. The prospect of cycling in traffic can be scary. But the overarching reason for my lack of recent pedal power is a serious lack of fitness. Scotland is hilly, there’s no getting away from it; as a sprightly ten-year-old there wasn’t a brae that I wouldn’t take on, but today even the slightest gradient puts the fear of God into me.
But the answer is out there, it’s just that at present it requires a hefty financial commitment. The benefits of owning an electric bike are no secret. Not only can it improve fitness, but for those of us who commute to the office it changes the face of this daily grind. It could undoubtedly go some way to tackling the ongoing obesity problem that we face as one of the least healthy countries in the developed world. And for anyone who struggles to find the time to exercise it provides the opportunity to do so at a time when they would usually be sitting behind the wheel of a car, or on a bus.
Tackling hills is far less daunting on an e-bike, they literally level the playing field, with the assist mode allowing riders to traverse them with no more effort than it takes to ride on the flat.
Typically people use e-bikes for longer journeys than they would attempt on a conventional bike, meaning that their increased use has the potential to reduce carbon emissions produced by motor vehicles. But this isn’t the only benefit of taking cars off the roads. In Edinburgh the council have begun trialling measures to reduce car traffic in the city centre and to make the city carbon neutral by 2030.
Given that my current commute sees me drive nine miles from a village on the outskirts of the capital, through the city centre, which regularly takes over an hour, I can certainly see their point.
With ranges of between 20 and 100 miles and top speeds of 16-28 mph, an e-bike would easily tackle most commutes. And when you reach work the battery can be charged by plugging into a normal wall socket. Some bikes even allow removal of the battery to charge indoors while the bike remains outside in the bike shed.
In 2018-19, 21,292 new build houses were completed in Scotland. Along with Highland, Perth and Kinross, Renfrewshire and Orkney, Edinburgh and the areas around the capital saw the highest rates of building, with more than 50 new homes completed per 10,000 population. The additional traffic that this brings to the already congested roads is taking its toll and making e-bikes more easily available to those who are within commuting distance of the city by bike would surely ease the inevitable bottlenecks.
“The most basic model of e-bike will cost you around £1,000
If housing developers who are building on the outskirts of cities were required to invest in cycle paths, this would create safer routes for cyclists and potential e-bike commuters, in turn reducing the number of cars on the road.
In Scotland there are incentives available to assist with the purchase of an e-bike. The Energy Saving Trust currently run an interest-free loan scheme which is funded by Transport Scotland, allowing people to pay off the cost of an e-bike over a period of four years. For every household the loan can cover two e-bikes at a maximum cost of £3,000 each, one family e-cargo bike or one adaptive bike capped at £6,000.
But is this enough to give people the push in the right direction that they might need to take the plunge back into cycling? In Scotland, and across the UK, we are lagging behind the rest of Europe in our uptake of electric bikes. Here they account for only 3% of all bike sales. In the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria e-bikes make up 30% of all bikes sold each year and 10-20% in Italy, France, Sweden and Germany.
So why are we not embracing the e-revolution in the same way? The issue for many is cost. The UK-wide Cycle to Work scheme allows employees to receive a discounted bike and accessories and spread the cost using tax free payments taken directly from a salary. But this is limited to employees who would use their bike mainly for commuting.
Subsidy schemes in European countries have proved successful in encouraging people to get on their e-bikes. With government funding being bolstered by retailers in a bid to bring about change. Perhaps Scotland needs to follow suit and offer grants to prospective e-cyclists, rather than loans or tax breaks? Even the most basic model of electric bike will cost you around £1,000 and more advanced models for use off road can cost up to £5,000.
So if you live in Scotland and plan on taking out the interest-free loan option, for a middle of the range bike costing £2,500, your outlay would be over £50 a month. If you can offset this against fuel costs then it might be financially beneficial, but for many who car share or travel by bus their commute would cost more for the duration of the loan.
According to the Scottish Health Survey in 2018, only two thirds of adults (66%) met the guidelines for moderate or vigorous activity. It also showed that adults living in the most deprived areas (32%) were more likely to have very low activity levels than those in the least deprived areas (12%). For many people living in these deprived areas – who according to these figures would benefit most from a way to kick-start their activity levels – the cost of an electric bike is likely to be prohibitive.
Trying to do the right thing by our mental and physical health, the planet and our fellow human beings can be overwhelming. It’s all too easy to become complacent and do nothing at all.
With just a little bit of encouragement and financial assistance the e-bike revolution could just be the answer that many of us are looking for.