The AA Trial Electric Bikes

Chronic congestion has reached record levels in some cities, so the AA is introducing patrols on electric scooters and motorbikes to tackle the problem.

The UK's biggest breakdown organisation will use Vectrix electric bikes to cut through traffic and reach breakdowns in central London up to 25 per cent quicker, getting members and other traffic moving again with minimum delay.

The trial is in central London, where traffic speeds in the morning peak are at their lowest in 40 years. If it is successful, the bikes could be rolled out to other major cities revealed today by the AA, in conjunction with Trafficmaster, in a "City Speed League Table";

The average traffic speed across London is 16.9mph. But during peak periods in central London this slows to just 10mph – the same speed as horse-drawn carriages a century ago.

City & Speed

Bristol 16.8
Glasgow 17.3
Southampton 17.8
Liverpool 17.8
Manchester 18.3
Cambridge 18.8
Birmingham 19.4
Sheffield 19.6
Cardiff 21.8
Newcastle 24.0

"On busy city roads, one flat tyre can delay thousands of motorists and further aggravate congestion. By cutting through traffic, AA bike patrols will reach breakdowns more quickly and get our members and other drivers back on the move with the minimum delay. We need radical action to beat record slow traffic in our cities and decided that two wheels are quicker than four. By fixing breakdowns more quickly, we will improve service to our members, and help reduce congestion and emissions. Our analysis of traffic speeds in major cities shows that congestion is not just a London problem with Bristol bottom of the league, and Glasgow, Southampton and Liverpool less than 1 mph quicker than London."
Edmund King, President, The AA

The bike patrols will target 'quick fix' breakdowns such as flat batteries, wheel changes and simple electrical faults. These problems cause over a third of the 3.6 million breakdowns attended by the AA each year, often causing lengthy traffic jams.

The new bikes – which include environment friendly zero-emission electric scooters – are expected to cut up to 25 per cent from peak time breakdown wait times, which average around 50 minutes in central London. The AA's response times are already market-leading as supported by a recent Which? survey.

The AA is making significant investment in further improving its response times and fourteen experienced AA patrols have been selected to ride the motorbikes, supported by a dedicated motorcycle recovery van in London. This will be supplemented in the coming months by five dedicated motorbike repair and recovery vans. They join a fleet of over 500 AA van patrols who cover central London and inside the M25.

Whilst I oppose the thought of supporting car use, the AA provide a service which assist motorists and reduces congestion, congestion itself is a major contributor to increased transportation CO2 emissions, and may be responsible for over 9m tonnes of CO2 annually in the UK. Compounded with the statistics from the AA on average speeds in our major cities, it seems that now is the time to get out of the car and search for an alternative to the gridlock. Getting on your bike you wouldn't be hard pushed to exceed 10mph for central london, and with a bit of effort 16.9mph for all of london. Switching to public transport, you can somewhat relax, sit back and enjoy the ride, and if this wasn't proof enough see my next post about Top Gear.