Four journal articles exploring the experiences of e-cargo bike users
Situating the e-cargo bike in an emerging cycling network: a qualitative study
Behavioural Insights for Policy series: Primary research
Year: 2025
Topic: Sustainable mobility, e-cargo bikes
Methodology: Interviews
Authors: Robert Egan, Hannah Julienne, Brian Caulfield, Mark Philbin
Summary
This study explored how private e-cargo bike owners on the island of Ireland experienced their local and regional cycling networks. It reveals the unique effects of cycle network planning, maintenance, and design practices on e-cargo cycling in this context, and how they can be reshaped to support e-cargo cycling in the future.
Read the journal article (opens in a new tab)Finding a place for the e-cargo bike: The parking and insurance practices of owners in Ireland
Behavioural Insights for Policy series: Primary research
Year: 2025
Topic: Sustainable mobility, e-cargo bikes
Methodology: Interviews
Authors: Robert Egan, Hannah Julienne, Brian Caulfield
Summary
This study explored e-cargo bike owner experiences and practices of parking in the context of Ireland. It reveals how e-cargo bike owners struggled to find a place that was a secure and convenient to park their e-cargo bikes. This struggle shaped their everyday mobility, constraining how and where the e-cargo bike would be used.
Read the journal article (opens in a new tab)Providing and confining mobility: the e-cargo bike as a technology of parenting
Behavioural Insights for Policy series: Primary research
Year: 2025
Topic: Sustainable mobility, e-cargo bikes
Methodology: Interviews
Authors: Robert Egan
Summary
This study explored the unique experiences and practices of parent-child mobility with the e-cargo bike in the low-cycling context of Ireland. It uncovers how parent-child mobility with the e-cargo bike reproduces practices fundamental to car-parenting – providing mobility for children and confining mobility of children – while normalising everyday mobility without the car.
Read the journal article (opens in a new tab)A cyclist, a family or a vehicle? Claiming the road with the e-cargo bike
Behavioural Insights for Policy series: Primary research
Year: 2026
Topic: Sustainable mobility, e-cargo bikes
Methodology: Interviews
Authors: Robert Egan, Hannah Julienne, Brian Caulfield
Summary
This study explored how the e-cargo bike might reconfigure the experience of cycling on roads in Ireland. With its larger size and cargo capacity, the e-cargo bike presented as more of an everyday utility “vehicle” than a non-cargo bike, while e-cargo riders felt they presented to motorists as a “family” more than a "cyclist". This shows how the materiality of the e-cargo bike on the road can help to question dominant meanings of cycling in a car-centric society.
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