Exploring the adoption of e-bicycle for student mobility in rural and urban areas of Tanzania

Abstract

Education plays a key role in socio-economic development. Transport to school is the main obstacle for students in Sub Saharan African to acquire better educational achievement. In Tanzania, urban roads are heavily congested, and long traffic jams hinder early arrival to schools whereas in rural areas schools are remotely located. Electrically assisted bicycle, simply e-bicycle, presents a promising alternative means of individual commuting. However, there is a lack of knowledge concerning the deployment of e-bicycle for student mobility. This paper addresses the existing issue of access to education for Tanzania’s students and explore the possible alternatives of using e-bicycle to get to school. The implementation is done in three different fashions: by purchasing a new complete e-bicycle, purchasing traditional bicycle and conversion kit separately; purchasing a conversion kit only. Findings reveal that student mobility by e-bicycle serves nearly half of annual bus fare, depending on the motor power. Moreover, electrifying the traditional bicycle is the cheapest option (90 US$ to 200 US$). For students with no traditional bicycle, scenario 2 fits them better (costing 190 US$ to 300 US$) than purchasing a new e-bicycle (490 US$ to 500 US$). Moreover, e-bicycle is expected to save the commuting time to about 75 to 80% in urban and rural schools, respectively.