Free e-bike loan scheme launched with £8m of government funding

by Alex Bowden May 12 2022

1 comments

Free e-bike loan scheme launched with £8m of government funding — Cycling made e-asy.jpg, by Cycling UK

'Cycling made e-asy' scheme will provide people with e-bikes for up to three months

E-bikes are being made available to use for free in Greater Manchester after the Department for Transport (DfT) provided Cycling UK with £8m in funding. The ‘cycling made e-asy’ scheme is also set to be rolled out in Leicester, Luton, Hull and Sheffield.

The funding, which covers this year and next, has been made available as part of the government’s Gear Change strategy, which aims for half of all journeys in towns and cities to be cycled or walked by 2030.

E-bikes are seen as a key means of achieving this goal as they open up cycling to a wider group of people.

Cycling minister Trudy Harrison commented: “E-cycles are a great way for people with longer or hillier journeys to travel and the £8m we have provided for this scheme will help make cycling the natural first choice for many journeys – a key Government commitment from the Prime Minister’s Walking and Cycling plan.

“I’m grateful to Cycling UK for delivering this scheme on our behalf, giving people across the UK the opportunity to try something new whilst doing good for the planet.”

Cycling UK will be providing free e-bike loans for up to three months. The aim of the programme is to dispel common myths about e-bikes and also to build awareness of them as a viable mode of transport.

The bikes are being made available at hubs in each pilot location with branches of Evans Cycles, local community spaces, selected workplaces and education settings being used for the scheme.

“The e-cycles project is a unique opportunity for Cycling UK to offer free and easy loans of electric cycles to communities across England,” said Cycling UK chief executive, Sarah Mitchell. “Each of our chosen locations will have a variety of e-cycles available to suit a variety of participants’ needs.

“At Cycling UK, we understand that taking the first step to start cycling can be a difficult prospect for many people. This project will allow them to access an e-cycle without obstacles holding them back, to help them make real changes to their travel habits.”

Users can book bikes through the Cycling UK website or in person at one of the hubs.

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Alex Bowden

Alex has been editor of ebiketips since 2021, switching to a world with motors after seven years working on sister site road.cc, where he contributed news, reviews and the occasional feature. These days he combines his road riding with electric bike testing and a dash of ongoing cricket writing (his first book's due out in 2025).

1 comments

chrisonatrike 2 years 7 months ago

A good "pump priming" project in a sense. However just like teaching kids to ride (which I think is important) what happens when new cyclists hit the streets? The authorities are still labouring under the idea that if you just "encourage" cycling, or maybe even hand out a few bikes or put in a cycle lane here and there mass cycling will happen. It won't, any more than mass motoring happened without a lot of (extremely expensive) infrastructure and decades of publicity and indeed state sponsorship.

There's a lack of understanding of what's needed for mass cycling: a network of safe and direct cycle routes wide enough for social cycling on good quality surfaces. Segregated where required and with extra attention paid to junctions (ideally avoiding them). So that needs building (reclaiming from motor vehicles!) or we'd need to drastically reduce the number of motor vehicles and police them far better. Because currently if people can cycle or drive, they drive. This is in part habit, mostly for convenience, partly that cycling doesn't feel safe.

Cycling for all is very cheap relative to motoring - but not free.