Yorkshire academics call for Government to subsidise e-bikes to slash carbon emissions

A team of researchers from the University of Leeds found that e-bikes, if used to replace car travel, could cut CO2 emissions in England by up to 50 per cent - the equivalent to about 30 million tonnes per year.

The team, led by Dr Ian Philips, from the university, started the work as a way to measure the potential carbon savings that e-bikes can offer in post-coronavirus recovery.

Dr Philips said: "The strategic potential of e-bikes as a mass-transport option has been overlooked by policymakers so far.

"As we emerge from the lockdown, e-bikes can be part of the solution to getting people safely mobile once again."

Results showed replacing just 20 percent of car miles travelled with e-bike travel would mean up to eight million fewer tonnes of carbon emitted each year.

The researchers also suggested that e-bikes could help to cut the costs of travel and aid people in low income neighbourhoods and those with limited access to public transport.

Dr Philips said: "We’re recommending that governments across the UK should find ways to incentivise e-bike use to replace car journeys.

"As well as lowering carbon emissions from transport, e-bikes have the potential to improve the mobility options for people and communities at risk of transport poverty."

The researchers have said the greatest impact on carbon emissions would come from use outside urban centres. This is due to e-bikes helping people make longer journeys than conventional cycles, and offering a new transport option.

The work has taken inspiration from Denmark where e-bike routes are already linking cities to towns and villages.

Join our new coronavirus Facebook group for the latest confirmed news and advice as soon as we get it.________________________________

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson