July’s event was a celebration of the opportunities afforded by the e-bicycle revolution, and a critical analysis of the question: Well why aren’t we making the most of it in Scotland then?
Led by e-bike enthusiast and Lockerbie-based e-cargo bike engineer Tim Godwin, we explored the legalities, logistics and learning opportunities in Scotland and the UK more widely.
Did you know? If an e-cycle can travel more than 15.5mph without being pedalled, then it’s technically a moped, and is therefore subject to requirements for a driving license and insurance?
Did you know? The carbon footprint of building an e-cargo bike from scratch is equivalent to 1/120th of that of a (small) Tesla car?
And did you know: That around the world (including the USA), states and governments are offering grants equivalent to hundreds or thousands of pounds each, to citizens to buy an e-bike, to help drive the transition to healthier, more active and less polluting communities? In the UK, financial support for e-bikes has never been available.
The evening was a whistle-stop tour of how infrastructure, incentives and education COULD revolutionise our travel for the better. We’re grateful to Cycling Dumfries for providing us with a local infrastructure context, with their Missing Links project that looks at key pieces of active travel infrastructure missing from our local network. We’re also tremendously grateful to those who brought their e-bikes down to the Stove for us to try them out for ourselves! The Midsteeple incline has never felt like such a breeze!
What do you think it would take for e-bikes to transform our town? Or, as Tim put it, to save the world? Put more locally, what would it take for you to switch more of your journeys from motorised transport and onto an e-bicycle? We’d love to hear from you!
