From on-road trial evaluation of electric and conventional bicycles to comparison with other urban transport modes: Case study in the city of Lisbon, Portugal

Increasing energy costs, energy consumption and emissions profiles prompted the promotion of different transportation alternatives. This research work addresses the comparison of trip dynamics, energy consumption, CO2 and NOx Well-to-Wheel impacts of 5 transportation alternatives (conventional and electric bicycles, conventional and electric vehicles and an urban bus) in Lisbon, Portugal. On-road monitoring of a specific route in Lisbon revealed that bikers using electric bicycles increased their average speed between 8% and 26% compared to their use of the conventional bicycle, especially in the route sections with positive slopes (up to 49% increases). Electric bicycles result in a Tank-to-Wheel energy consumption of 0.028 MJ/km, allowing an average autonomy of 46 km between recharging. When comparing the 5 transportation alternatives, the electric bicycles presented a higher travel time of 13.5%, 1.9% and 7.8% over the bus, low powered electric vehicle, and standard electric vehicle/conventional technologies, respectively. Regarding the Well-to-Wheel energy consumption analysis, the results indicated that, when compared to the other transportation solutions, the electric bicycle only uses 11%, 3%, 1%, 2% and 4% of the energy required when using the low powered electric vehicle, standard electric vehicle, conventional gasoline and diesel technologies and bus, respectively. Furthermore, the analysis of Well-to-Wheel emissions reveals that the electric bicycle has 13% and 4% lower CO2 emissions and 12% and 4% lower NOx emissions when compared to the low powered and standard electric vehicles, respectively. This research work allows sustaining that bicycles can be considered interesting solutions for urban trips, with comparable trip times to other transportation modes, as well as zero local emissions and reduced Well-to-Wheel pollutant impacts, contributing significantly for the improvement of the overall urban air quality.