Anyone going to TfL London e-bike industry forum today?

[Woosh]

London E-bike Industry Forum

Date/Time: 31 January 2017, 14:00 – 16:30

Location: London Living Room, City Hall, The Queen’s Walk, London, SE1 2AA

Hatti @ Woosh is going.

 

[Woosh]

I have been told that about 80 delegates turned up at the meeting, sitting around 8 tables, between 8-12 delegates at each.
The meeting brought together the DfT, TfL, the Bicycle Association, Local Councils, charities, universities and quite a lot of well known names here, like 50Cycles, Bosch, Brompton, Cyclotricity, Cycle Surgery, Decathlon, E-bike Direct, Emu, Evans, Juicy, Momentum, Volt etc and Woosh.
The talk centered around how to promote e-cycling in London. Hopefully, more will follow in the near future.

pedelecs did not attend.

That was a missed opportunity, I think.

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Unfortunately, we couldn't be there as we were exhibiting at The Bike Place Exhibition at Silverstone. The number of cycle shops wanting to take on ebike dealerships was staggering. It seems the industry have finally accepted Ebikes will be a very important part of their business. We signed up 11 new dealer's at the show and estimate we will have about 20 more by the end of this month.

I am sure the BA will give its members a full report on the London meeting in due course and I would be pleased to post it here. In the meantime would anyone who was there be prepared to write a few words about the meeting for the benefit of forum members?

All the best, David

 

[Woosh]

there are the usual discussions about the lack of secure storage for bikes and e-bikes, the specific issues of older riders, the relatively high acquisition cost of e-bikes, the need to get Cycle to Work allowance raised to £1,500 or abolish the limit altogether and promotional effort to popularize e-bikes.
Woosh are of course keen on any show at the Olympic Park because it's easy for us to attend.

 

[flecc]

pedelecs did not attend.

That was a missed opportunity, I think.

I wonder if pedelecs was even notified of the event? Admin usually notify such events with an entry in one of the appropriate sections, but we'd seen or heard nothing until your post above on the day.
.

 

[HelenJ]

I wonder if pedelecs was even notified of the event? Admin usually notify such events with an entry in one of the appropriate sections, but we'd seen or heard nothing until your post above on the day.
.

Correct. That was the first I knew of it.

 

[Woosh]

Summary of the TFL meeting:

TFL were anxious to make it clear that money was an issue in terms of perhaps buying or renting out e bikes on a large scale as in the 'Boris/Santander' category. Costs would be probitive in view of all the extras needed to ensure batteries are securely locked and can be charged frequently without problems. So they did say that no bottomless pit would be available. They were very keen however to look at any proposals to promote ebiking in London, based on the premise that the current population of 8 or so million will have reached 10 million by 2030 and the roads , as we all know, are already far too congested and causing health problems. They see e bikes as a means of expanding cycling by perhaps appealing to riders who would not normally consider cycling at all, rather than trying to convert existing cyclists who are probably fit and used to London's traffic.
A lot of very positive suggestions were put forward on how to promote e bikes: trial sessions in parks, trade shows and events in public areas, closing of of some streets for localised trials, lobbying of Cyle to Work schemes to increase the £1000 threshold, increased number of secure storage hangers, more media coverage including radio and TV, including true life stories about health benefits, advertising in prominent sites (eg Underground). Nothing was promised - we are at the early stages of discussion - and they just wanted feedback, but I think there will be a very positive response.

If anyone else has any other ideas about how to promote e biking - even if you don't live in London most of it would be relevant - please comment.

Walked back over Tower Bridge to Fenchurch Street station on the way home, felt how very polluted the air was (had me coughing by the end), and nearly got run over by a cab driver when crossing on a green pedestrian light.
Fewer cars, more bikes please, London!

Hatti.

 

[HelenJ]

Hatti has kindly provided me with the contact point at TfL (thanks Hatti) so I have emailed to see if (a) I can raise further awareness of what they're trying to do here, perhaps via an article on the home page if they think that might be useful and (b) if there is any other way perhaps the pooled experiences and thoughts of the forum members who already cycle in London might be able to help (e.g. a survey of cyclists to add to industry input and ideas) I may then be able to 'unmiss' and a missed opportunity I didn't know about

Update: I have heard back, the invite list was based on a: "search for attendees on retailers and manufacturers." Understandable I guess since it was an e-bike industry forum. I will see if we can usefully add to the existing efforts in any way.

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Thanks Hatti.

 

[Tugwell Gibson]

Some way of keeping your bike secure would be a great start. Like gun cabinets for bikes. I wouldn't want to leave mine anywhere in London. They stick out. Look expensive. Look fun.

 

[The Davis Bike]

How about a focus on family and social environment? ebike could revolutionise the way people move around cities, they can cut congestion, cut pollution and increase productivity.

There is needs to focus on the difference between bicycles and electric bicycles, I think the general public believe that bicycles are for children, people that do not stop at red lights or just for fitness and that ebikes are for lazy people, this needs to be addressed. The fact is an ebike are not a substitute for a bicycle but a substitute for the underground, buses, trains and cars for journeys around 15 miles round trip.

A good example of a change in perception for an industry, is the gaming market, before 2006 game consoles were only considered for, violent games and people who did not go to bed, Nintendo changed that idea with the Wii console bring social gaming to all the family, with wii fit and wii sports and sold over 100 million consoles mainly to people that had never considered buying one before.

Ebike could be a game changer, but what the ebike industry needs is to get people to think.

 

[The Davis Bike]

another great campaign was "GOT MILK" in was ran in America (i think it started 1993). it's marketing genius, because it focuses on the absence of the product not on the benefits, for years they were trying to push the health benefits of milk and sales continued to declined, then "GOT MILK" and sales went though the roof, it's a simple message that people can get and remember.