As part of the city of Aalborg’s commuter travel plan a group of employees at one of the participating companies is offering their employees the chance to test an electric bike as a new green way of getting to and from work. Aalborg (Denmark), is both an ICLEI member and a member of the CIVITAS Initiative, a European Commission funded project that promotes sustainable urban mobility in cities across Europe.

In the commuter travel plan the employees’ travel behaviour was examined in a survey. The survey showed that the majority of commuters travel by car. In addition, only a small group of the employees used bicycles to travel to and from work. Ten employees were asked to test the electric bikes for a period of four months. The participants had to have previously been car users, be willing to use the new bike no less than four days a week, and have a distance of more than 5 km to work.

The electric is bicycle equipped with an electric motor that only assists the cyclists when pedaling. Therefore, the cyclist still needs to be active in order to get moving. An electric bike is an environmentally friendly and health promoting way of traveling. It also removes barriers to cycling such as level of fitness and travel distance.

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