Study of Average E-Bike Speeds, and Comparison to Traditional Bicycles

Study of average e-bike speeds, and comparison to traditional bicycles.

This law is a thoughtful approach to streamlining e-bike regulations without sacrificing safety. We need to make sure to address safety and consumer concerns before this category of bicycle proliferates.

Five studies show that electric bicycles do not travel significantly faster than regular bicycles and in some instances, are slower. Lack of bicycle infrastructure is the greatest barrier to safety, not the kind of bicycle.

McLeod, Ken. League of American Bicyclists. (2014). Electric Bicycles: Public Perceptions & Policy. Results and analysis of a national survey of American bicyclists. . Several studies have shown that electric bicycles result in higher speeds, particularly higher average speeds, but that maximum speeds are usually lower than 20 mph.

Dozza, M., Werneke, J., & Mackenzie, M. (2013). e-BikeSAFE: A naturalistic cycling study to understand how electrical bicycles change cycling behaviour and influence safety. http://www.icsc2013.com/papers/dozza2013_ebikestudy naturalisticbiking.pdf . Speed data were collected along with comprehensive visual and other telemetry data for both traditional bicycles and electric bicycles. Average speed of a traditional bicycle is 8.7 mph. Average speed of an electric bicycle is 14 mph. . There’s a much lower variance of e-bike speeds compared to standard bicycles, though reported average speeds were higher.

Macarthur, J. and N. Kobel (2014). Regulations of E-bikes in North America, National Institute for Transportation and Communities. http://ppms.otrec.us/media/project_files/NITC-RR- 564_Regulations_of_E-Bikes_in_North_America_1.pdf . Although reports of actual e-bike speeds are sparse in the literature, one study documenting an electric-bike sharing system showed that both the average speed and maximum speed of e-bikes were slightly higher (approximately 3 mph) than standard bicycles (Langford, 2013). This is consistent with anecdotal evidence of e-bike speeds. . E-bike users are able to maintain higher travel speeds than regular bicycle users due to the increased performance of the e-bike. This means that the variance of e-bikes’ speed is likely lower than standard bicycles.

Langford, B. (2013). A comparative health and safety analysis of electric-assist and regular bicycles in an on-campus bicycle sharing system. Doctoral dissertation at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/2445/ . The travel speeds for e-bike users are higher on average, 13.3 kph, than those for regular bicycle users, 10.5 kph. This result fits the assumption that . Average travel speeds for users of either bicycle type are lower than speed limits; yet, many users are able to travel at speeds similar to the posted speed limits. . On shared use facilities, regular bicycle users have slightly higher average travel speeds than e-bike users, 12.6 kph versus 11.0 kph respectively. They also have slightly higher average top speeds across all segments, 26.0 kph for regular bicycle users versus 25.4 kph for e-bike users. . Higher travel speeds on these facilities for regular bicycle users could reflect the exercise nature of the trip and the physical fitness levels of the user. . E-bike riders in this study had lower average and top speeds on greenways. E-bike users can more easily maintain their travel speed across rolling terrain due to the added benefit of the e-bike motor. . Concerns over user safety on e-bikes as compared to regular bicycles stems from the added benefit that users gain from the electric motor on e-bikes. The differences are generally small and generally explained by other factors, unrelated to the bike itself. . The advantages that users gain from e-bikes have little overall effect on user safety as compared users of regular bicycles. For instance, violation rates at intersections differ between the two modes, but the larger difference occurs between intersection types, not bicycle types. . These findings have relevance to bicycle and e-bike policy, mainly in removing a misconception that e-bikes are intrinsically more dangerous than regular bicycles. Violation rates were generally high for both modes.

Langford, Chen, Cherry. (2015) Risky riding: naturalistic methods comparing safety behavior from conventional bicycle riders and electric bike riders. . Little safety-related research has been conducted in North America or Europe because of relatively small e-bike ridership numbers. . However, with few exceptions, riders of e-bike behave very similarly to riders of bicycles. Violation rates were very high for both vehicles. Regular bicycle riders travel the wrong way or on the wrong side of the road more than e-bike riders (48% and 41%, respectively; >95% Confidence). . Average on-road speeds of e-bike riders (13.3 kph) were higher than bicyclists (10.4 kph) but shared use path (greenway) speeds of e-bike riders (11.0 kph) were lower than bicyclists (12.6 kph). . At stop control intersections, both bicycle and e-bike riders violate the stop signs at the same rate for all speed ranges (~80% violation at 6 kph, 40% violation at 11 kph). Bicycles and e-bikes violate traffic signals at the similar rates (70% violation rate). . These findings suggest that, among the same population of users, e-bike riders exhibit nearly identical safety behavior as bicyclists and should be regulated in similar ways. Users of both technologies have very high violation rates of traffic control devices and interventions should occur to improve compliance.