Abstract
Electrical assisted bicycles (e-Bikes) represent an emerging sustainable mode of transport for future smart cities. Several designs issues impact policy in several countries such as the UK, Europe and the USA. As e-bike usage continues to grow, so too will the need for further research, in order to provide the necessary data to inform industrialists what cycling features matters for a wider, diverse and sustainable adoption of this mode of transport. This investigation discusses results from a survey on end-user preferences for future e-Bikes that will be developed in the coming years. User preferences related to safety and convenience were defined using market reviews and responses gathered from 638 potential users mainly from Europe and North America. Data were analysed to rank the importance of desired functionality to improve the uptake of cycling within urban environments. In general, the results indicate that safety and convenience features were equally valued across the whole sample size. ‘Gradient Climb Assist’ and ‘Break Lights & Indicators’ were respectively the most preferred convenience and safety feature. This survey showed how respondents expressed a desire for a more intelligent, secure and adaptive e-Bikes.
Highlights
There is increasing pressure on transport infrastructures caused by the influx of people working within and commuting to major global cities (Taylor, 2002)
Lifecycle analyses demonstrate that e‐Bikes are more energy efficient (7.3 ± 3.0 kW h 100 km−1 for e‐Bikes compared to 56 ± 15 kW h 100 km−1 for motorcycles and 35 ± 9 kW h 100 km−1 for buses) and less polluting (2.5 ± 2.0 kg CO2‐eq 100 km−1 for e‐Bikes compared to 15 ± 6 kg CO2‐eq 100 km−1 for motorcycles and 11 ± 2 kg CO2‐eq 100 km−1 for buses) than conventionally‐powered motor vehicles and public transport systems (Weiss et al, 2015)
The main survey findings, coupled with the results presented in the Affinity Diagram and regulation to the UK law (British Standards Institution, 2017)) have been developed into a House of Quality (HoQ) (Hauser and Clausing, 1988) and Product Design Specification (PDS) (Page, 2005) for generation intelligent e‐Bikes’ systems
Summary
There is increasing pressure on transport infrastructures caused by the influx of people working within and commuting to major global cities (Taylor, 2002). The global increment in demand in mainly due to several factors: (i) auto and motorbike manufacturers entering the e‐Bike business with expanded technology and marketing options (Singh, 2012), (ii) the involvement of major component suppliers (e.g. power units) such as Bosch, (iii) the forecast of advanced technology such as collision avoidance being adapted to e‐Bikes (Oortwijn, 2016), (iv) global legislative harmonisation initiatives (Reid, 2015), (v) improvements to lithium battery technology (Erickson et al, 2014), (vi) current consumer product sectors experiencing a desire for and growth in intelligent design and improved aesthetics (Wiebe, 2002) and (vii) increased consumer awareness of health, environmental and convenience benefits of cycling (Mueller et al, 2018). Currently purported intelligent e‐Bikes provide users with data e.g. bike’s location (i.e. longitude, latitude, altitude and time), usage (i.e. use of the motor assistance) and other sensor data (e.g. seating pressure, foot pressure location) without offering reasons as to why these data can be useful to a user group (Kiefer and Behrendt, 2016)
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