Reinventing Transport

Stefan Bakker sees a big future for electric vehicles with two wheels.  I asked Stefan to join me for this month's Reinventing Transport, after reading his  “Electric Two-Wheelers, Sustainable Mobility and the City” . Learn more about Stefan Bakker via LinkedIn or ResearchGate.   Electric two-wheelers, such as e-bikes, get less attention than electric cars or even electric buses. But two-wheeled electric vehicles are increasing in numbers faster and are already making more of a difference to carbon emissions than their larger cousins. Why are their numbers surging? How much potential is there? Which kinds will take off, the lighter/slower or the heavier/faster? (Do you see the double meaning in the title?) What benefits and risks/costs do they have? What policies are appropriate? Stefan and I tackled these questions and more. Here are highlights from the conversation. Stefan was prompted to write about electric two-wheelers after several years working i...

You probably know that the Netherlands has lots of cycling. They sure do! An amazing 27% of ALL trips* in this rich country in 2005 were by bicycle. Riding in the Netherlands is also remarkably safe. Safety in numbers (from "Cycling in the Netherlands", p.13) So what is their secret? How did the Netherlands get to be such a cycling paradise? There are several rather unhelpful theories. "It is a flat country": No doubt this helps. But there are plenty other comparable flat places with much less cycling. "The Dutch have a long-standing 'bicycle culture'": Certainly they do. But is this a cause or an effect? So did many other countries at some point in the 20th century. Yet most of them somehow lost their 'bicycle cultures'. "They have good weather for cycling": I hear this when I talk about cycling in hot and sticky Singapore. But I suspect this theory is only popular among people who have never spent any time in a damp and windy D...