TfL has long known that e-bikes make a lot of sense in trying to get more people out of their cars but seems to have had trouble figuring out how it can get involved. Back in 2015 it looked at trialing an electric version of the Santander hire bikes in Muswell Hill, which made a lot of sense given the hilly terrain and the bus ride to tube or overground train stations. This was cancelled after the tender process, apparently due to infrastructure costs. And since then municipal e-bike efforts have been at a more local or borough level, for example as spearheaded by the Zero Emissions Network.
But now TfL has teamed up with the Association of Cycle Traders (ACT) to put together a website bringing together information on e-bikes, retailers and crucially where to test ride them – it’s only in riding electric bikes that people properly understand what they are all about.
The site – at ebikes.london – goes live late February after which TfL will run marketing and promo campaigns to get the word out. It’ll be interesting to see how increased awareness will change perception of e-bikes and will maybe reduce the number of “that’s cheating” comments that riders apparently get (I haven’t had any). The point is that e-bikes are just an alternative kind of bike and a really good way of getting around town.