Beryl and BCP Council celebrate success of e-bikes in first year

Credit: Beryl

Sustainable transport experts, Beryl and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council have announced that they are celebrating the success of their e-bike share scheme in the region, which has replaced almost 4,500 private road journeys in its first year.

Since its introduction alongside shared bikes and e-scooters on 26 July 2022, the e-bikes have completed over 20,000 journeys covering nearly 76,000km. This has resulted in a saving of over three tonnes of harmful CO2 emissions, equivalent to almost 1,500 litres of petrol.

Furthermore, according to the latest Beryl Annual Rider Report, the presence of e-bikes has encouraged more people to opt for shared sustainable travel. The report has revealed a significant increase in riders with almost double the number of people riding bikes and e-scooters compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, the number of riders exclusively using bikes has decreased substantially. The bike-share scheme has achieved significant user adoption, surpassing 200,000 unique users since its launch.

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Beryl’s CEO, Phil Ellis, said: “It’s great to see how much of an impact our e-bikes have had in BCP, not just in terms of cutting congestion and carbon emissions, but also in terms of encouraging people to try different modes of shared sustainable travel. Our e-bikes are a fantastic way to get around and the extra power that they provide can make the occasionally hilly terrain more accessible to some riders and allow them to undertake longer journeys.”

BCP Council’s Councillor Andy Hadley said: “A key priority for the council is to ensure residents have the choices available to be able to undertake shorter journeys in a sustainable way. The use of an e-bike extends that choice, and fits the BCP area perfectly; whether your journey needs that bit of extra power to negotiate somewhere like Alder Hills, or you want to boost your fitness by pedalling around Christchurch or the hillier parts of Bournemouth.”

Since its launch in June 2019, the BCP scheme has facilitated over 1.6 million journeys, replacing nearly 400,000 car, van, taxi, or motorbike trips, leading to an overall saving of approximately 282 tonnes of harmful CO2 emissions.