Free money from e-bike incentives not just great for our wallets: UBC study

There are even greater benefits than saving hundreds of dollars through e-bike rebate programs, new UBC research is suggesting.

Researchers at UBC’s Research on Active Transportation (REACT) Lab surveyed people who participated in District of Saanich’s e-bike incentive program.

This program was available in 2021 and 2022 and offered three different rebates to offset the cost of new e-bikes, depending on a person’s income. UBC explained that some were granted a basic rebate of up to $350. However, the lowest-income households could receive up to $1,600. Thanks to the rebates, researchers said there was a “surge in e-bike adoption.” About 93% of users were using an e-bike for the first time, and 60% were new to cycling altogether.

In one year of purchasing their e-bike, folks continued to be satisfied with their new mode of transportation and routinely used it three to four days a week.

“They reduced weekly car travel by an average of 48 kilometres per week, a reduction of 30-40%,” a UBC statement about the survey reads.

“The incentive not only encouraged people to switch to e-bikes, it also resulted in remarkable changes in travel behaviour that persisted long after the purchase,” Dr. Alex Bigazzi, principal investigator and associate professor of civil engineering at UBC who leads REACT, said.

As people regularly used this new mode of transportation instead of their car, “Low-income households reduced their car trips and decreased carbon emissions the most,” the UBC statement added. “Incentives are a cost-effective way of reducing carbon emissions.”

While a common criticism about e-bike incentives was that there was a high cost relative to their climate benefits, “the Saanich program was competitive with other transportation subsidies in Canada at a cost of approximately $190 to $720 per tonne of GHG emissions,” the statement reads.

“This suggests that e-bike incentives are more cost-effective in reducing emissions compared to electric car incentives, and that’s without including a range of cycling-related benefits such as increased physical activity, reduced local air pollutants and decreased travel costs,” Bigazzi said.

As people drove less in this community, they would reduce their travel-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by about 16 kilograms of CO2 a week within just a year of owning an e-bike.

The survey also found that the bigger the incentive, the more people reduced their car use and carbon emissions.

“The larger incentives aimed at lower-income families did a great job getting new riders in the saddle and gave them a lower-cost alternative to using their cars,” Bigazzi said.

The REACT Lab is now partnering with the Province of BC and other researchers to study the province-wide e-bike incentive program.

“The broader scope will allow researchers to look at factors including variations in climate and terrain and the availability of safe cycling routes, to better understand their influences,” the statement reads.