A Shimano study of over 2,000 people in the UK, as part of a wider group of over 15,500 across 12 European countries, has found that just 27% of people surveyed in the UK feel that cycling infrastructure has improved in their local area in the last year. This is compared to an average of 39% across all European countries polled.
With cycling having increased during the pandemic, due to quieter roads and a desire to avoid public transport, Shimano notes that some countries have made headway in trying to reinforce those changes by delivering noticeable improvements to cycling infrastructure.
This research was undertaken in order to create this year’s State of the Nation, an annual report released by the brand to provide insight into attitudes towards e-bikes across Europe.
Despite significant ambition for improving cycling in the UK, this lack of perceived progress is stark in comparison to other countries such as Poland and France, where 56% and 49% (respectively) of people feel that infrastructure has improved.
When asked about factors that might encourage somebody to buy or hire an e-bike more now, compared to 12 months ago, economic factors such as the cost of living (56%) and purchase subsidies (40%) came out as the primary motivations.
Across Europe, economic reasons such as cost of living (47%) and e-bike subsidies (41%), are considerably more likely to be chosen than Covid-19 as a ‘push’ factor towards increasing e-bike use (18%). This is in contrast to last year, where 39% of respondents across Europe said […]
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