Dott highlight the space-saving potential of e-bikes
Across Europe, Dott has been highlighting how single-occupancy cars are wasting the space on our streets, and how our cities could be transformed if more people switched to cycling.
In the lead up to World Bike Day, a specially created ‘car frame’ was driven on Dott e-bikes around London, Paris and Brussels to highlight the space saving potential of e-bikes.
In London, if less than 1% switched from driving to cycling, over 88km of roads could be saved – more than the lengths of the North & South circulars combined.
In a press release The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, revealed the cost of traffic congestion to the capital:
- Traffic on London’s roads cost London’s economy £5.1bn a year, or £1,211 per driver
The announcement also “warned that unless efforts increase to deliver a green, sustainable recovery from the pandemic, the capital could move from one public health and economy crisis to another, caused by filthy air and gridlocked roads.”
In addressing this challenge, the point is also made that:
- More than 1/3 of car trips made by Londoners could be walked in under 25 minutes
- 2/3 could be cycled in under 20 minutes
Congestion is also closely linked to air quality issues, with idling vehicles having a measurable negative impact.
A raft of projects aimed at delivering improvements in air quality across England are being financially supported by £11.6m in Government Air Quality Grants, whilst Active Travel England has been given the task of supporting changes to our built environment so as to address the most frequently cited reason people do not use cycling as a form of transport: Safety.
Further reinforcing the point about reduction car journeys, in tandom with building cycle specific infrastructure of the kind heavily invested in across Europe, research commissioned by Bike is Best, carried out by academics at Westminster University, found that boosting use of e-bikes would deliver a slew of benefits not achieved by shifting to electric cars.
