With e-bikes rising in recognition, the Colorado Energy Office (CEO) is working with the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory to gather and analyze e-bike travel information to learn the way the fastest-growing type of electrical car transport is getting used and impacting vitality consumption.
Starting in 2021, CEO funded a number of pilot packages, together with one which distributed e-bikes and e-bike-share memberships to low-income important employees in numerous areas within the state. Each pilot examined completely different packages, fashions and incentives with their individuals to seize varied varieties of insights.
Participants used a custom-made model of NREL’s OpenPATH app, which mechanically detected and passively collected information on individuals’ travels. It created a travel diary and requested riders to label diary entries to learn the way the e-bikes have been getting used and assist consider carbon emissions savings, NREL defined in a current information story.
In the Smart Commute pilot in Adams and Broomfield counties individuals used e-bikes for a trial interval earlier than transitioning to full possession. The pilot revealed an absence of appropriate charging stations and bike racks the place the automobiles may very well be securely left.
That perception led to the event of a database for e-bike-friendly sources. “Our thought was that if we were going to ask them to do [use e-bikes], then we needed to give them the right gear for them to be successful,” stated Jeanne Shreve, the e-bike program administrator for Smart Commute.
For the Roll-to-Restaurants pilot in Durango, CEO partnered with 4Core, a non-profit selling vitality effectivity for decrease earnings residents. The pilot used a loan-to-own program to supply e-bikes and equipment to low-income restaurant and meals service workers. Participants have been requested to notice their travels on the NREL app, and after a number of months of constant information assortment, individuals would fully personal the e-bike.
The dashboard on CanBikeCO reveals a wide range of metrics for Colorado’s six e-bike pilot packages, together with journey depend by goal, e-bike journey frequency, the distribution of varieties of journeys (in single automobiles, rideshare choices or strolling) changed by e-bikes. It additionally graphs how e-bike vitality use and emissions evaluate to different transit modes.
While the information gathered by way of the app has helped observe carbon emissions, individuals’ motivation to annotate their journeys grew to become a problem. To handle the decline in handbook person enter, an computerized labeling characteristic with an error gauge will likely be built-in into the subsequent model of the app, NREL officers stated.
As a results of the success of the Colorado e-bike pilots, the OpenPATH app is now broadly accessible to public companies who can ask residents to put in it on their smartphones and be a part of native e-bike research. The app contains a built-in carbon footprint tracker so customers can observe their travel emissions and inform decisions about sustainable choices. The open-source device can be modified for extra particular research.
The information captured by the OpenPATH device will help policymakers assist the expansion of the micromobility market, which will help meet the wants of underrepresented and distant communities and contribute to discount in greenhouse gasoline emissions.
“Travel mobility tends to focus on larger vehicles, and the lack of data revealing the travel behavior of people in these types of communities creates disparity for how infrastructure and transportation projects are funded,” stated NREL’s Andrew Duvall, challenge lead and transportation conduct analyst. “OpenPATH democratizes mobility data collection, which will enable policymakers to be more informed when making investment choices—such as adding a bike lane on a bridge when it’s built, rather than expensive retrofitting; taking into account how people are traveling and ensuring energy-efficient options are factored into infrastructure.”
The findings from this pilot have already knowledgeable the creation of recent e-bike incentive packages in Denver and e-bike mortgage packages in partnership with the New Haven, Connecticut, Clean Cities Coalition, NREL officers stated.