ITS Monday: Edition 42, 2025

Transport and land use is so intertwined and cannot be ignored in strategic policy initiatives

First up this week is a piece by David Hensher, from the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies‘ Thinking Outside the Box series. ” He argues argues that tackling Sydney’s traffic congestion requires a coordinated mix of transport, land use, and policy strategies rather than relying on single infrastructure fixes.

E-cargo bikes as a personal transport mode in the UK: Insights from surveys and suburban trials

A new academic paper, co-authored by Ian Philips, Sally Cairns, Alice De Séjournet, Jillian Anable, Labib Azzouz, Frauke Behrendt, Christian Brand, Noel Cass, Mary Darking, Clara Glachant, Eva Heinen, Nick Marks, and Theresa Nelson.

The abstract:

This paper explores the potential of e-cargo bikes as a personal transport mode in the UK, reporting on a series of surveys and trials. Hypothesising that early adoption of this niche mode was geodemographically skewed, we carried out a nationally-representative survey which showed that living in London, being aged 18–34 and being a less frequent car user were associated with e-cargo bike use.

Additionally, we used an empirical mixed methods approach to understand what level of usage might be achieved via a supported trial in areas outside London which were relatively car-dependent. 49 households were loaned an e-cargo bike for a month in summer 2023, in suburbs of Leeds, Brighton and Oxford. Eleven of these households borrowed e-cargo bikes again the following winter.

By Autumn 2024, 10 trial households had bought e-cargo bikes. High usage was achieved in the trials, with summer trial households cycling approximately 8000 km (38–42 km per household per week) with over 50 % of the distance travelled replacing car use. This work revealed a range of advantages of use as well as issues to address, including purchase costs, theft, negative perceptions of battery safety and a lack of e-cargo-bike appropriate infrastructure.

The study demonstrated that there are current non-adopter groups of people in the UK for whom e-cargo bikes represent a realistic and desirable form of mobility, with the potential to reduce car use and associated emissions, and with possible benefits for health and family activities.

Related iMOVE articles:

• Micromobility: Info, Projects & Resources

Related iMOVE project:

• Micromobility and freight: Exploring opportunities in WA

Australia has a mobility culture problem: it responds to child deaths based only on what killed them

A piece by Phillip L., from his LinkedIn account. “This piece isn’t opportunism or anti-car. It’s pro-children. It’s a timely reflection on systemic patterns that keep repeating. Without honest scrutiny, nothing changes before the next tragedy – save for kids being stripped of even more freedom to roam.”

Personal e-scooter ownership and use: Perspectives from New Zealand

A second piece this week from the Institute of Transport and Logistics Institute. “

In common with much of the world, e-scooters have emerged onto the urban landscape in New Zealand, promising both a practical and greener form of personal mobility.

While focus has primarily been around managing shared e-scooter services, relatively liberal e-scooter legislation has encouraged the purchase of personal/private e-scooters, which are not regulated at the point of sale, exacerbating concerns around how to safely accommodate this emerging mode. In turn, this highlights the need for better understanding of personal e-scooter users, about which relatively little is known.

Drawing from a survey of 252 current and former e-scooter owners in New Zealand, this paper provides estimates of e-scooter ownership, explores motivations for purchasing e-scooters, who is buying them, what consumers are looking for, how they are being used and implications for shared e-scooter schemes.

Results suggest around 60% of personal e-scooters are capable of travelling about the maximum ‘safe’ e-scooter speed limit in New Zealand of 25 kph. E-scooter owners are more likely be male, middle-aged, middle/higher income, employed and have tried a shared e-scooter scheme prior to purchase and be motivated by the flexibility, performance, and potential cost-savings.

The growing number of shared e-scooter services is evidently providing a pathway to purchase, a complementary mode and potentially a factor in people selling their e-scooter. Going forward, safely accommodating, and regulating e-scooter usage without compromising the intrinsic appeal of this emerging mode of transport is essential, if it is to play a meaningful role in moving us towards more sustainable mobility systems.”