Mechanical bikes in bike sharing? Like saying "I want to watch video in 4K on a Nokia 3310"

Recently, and without realizing it, a European capital celebrated its bike-sharing scheme achieving less than one ride per bike per day after two years of operations.

Wait, what?

How can we explain such performance in a city of more than one million inhabitants, and why do city officials seem to be fine with it?

I don't have all the parameters in mind, but performance could be influenced by various factors, such as:

• A high percentage of people owning their bikes
• Insufficient cycling infrastructure
• Inadequate communication
• The service being too small for the city's population
• Low service quality and availability

Let's assume the system's performance isn't hindered by any of the reasons above and examine one key decision made by the municipality when they renewed the service.

This scheme only has mechanical bikes.

I have lost count of the studies proving that electric bikes are more effective than mechanical bikes at getting people to ride.

Yet, I couldn't resist crunching the numbers and comparing the results of this capital city with those of a large city that launched a bike-sharing scheme around the same period, with a similar "bike per capita" ratio, but opted for a 100% electric fleet.

The result is shown in the graph above. While this isn't an exact comparison, the data is compelling. In the first year, the e-bike scheme attracted 7.5% more riders than the mechanical one. More importantly, it generated 666% more rides!

Given the choice between a shared electric bike and a shared mechanical bike, people will pick the electric bike 8 times out of 10.

So why do some major cities still choose 100% mechanical schemes? It's not due to a lack of knowledge. It has more to do with how cities perceive the role of bike-sharing in transforming mobility habits.

Choosing mechanical bikes today is the easy, low-risk option. It's akin to replacing an old fleet of buses with a new fleet of buses, which might just be more modern. This choice overlooks the most impactful innovation for daily mobility: power-assisted bikes.

For those with ambitious goals, claiming that mechanical bikes can achieve the same as electric bikes is like saying, "I want to watch video in 4K on my Nokia 3310." Sorry, not going to happen.

The truth is, cities that opt for mechanical bikes often haven't grasped the potential of e-bike sharing and aren't ready to watch video in 4K (yet).

As someone once told me, "For the same budget, certain cities are more likely to invest in cheaper mechanical bikes to maintain the same number of bikes on the streets, rather than invest in a smaller, more expensive fleet of electric bikes, even if it would provide better outcomes."

This decision is all about the expected outcomes. At the highest levels (EU, States), it should be made clear that e-bike sharing is a transformative, cost-efficient initiative that any city with more than a few tens of thousands of inhabitants should seriously consider to reduce car usage.

Among a pool of Fifteen cities with populations below 250K, we found that 26% of rides taken on shared e-bikes directly replaced car trips. And do you know which city is seeing the strongest impact on modal shift? The smallest of them. Landerneau, a small city of 15K inhabitants in Brittany, western France.

At the local level, bike-sharing projects – and thus, providers and operators – should be assessed based on the impact they make.

Not based on the total number of rides. Not based on the total number of users.

But based on:

• How often people use the service (which is different from "how often the bikes are used")
• How well it encourages more women or elderly people to cycle
• Its performance in terms of modal shift and avoided CO2 emissions
• Its success in providing equal access to mobility and opportunities for people from all neighborhoods

Bike-sharing is no longer just a nice "add-on" to transportation policy. It is a fantastic lever to attract many more people to cycling (with e-bikes, as you probably guessed).