South Australian Councils leading on e-bike incentives
5 March 2024 | Community, netzero
Following the announcement in 2023 of rebates for e-bikes, cargo e-bikes, e-scooters and e-skateboards by the Tasmanian Government, two South Australian Councils are the first on the mainland to offer similar incentives.
The City of Adelaide unanimously adopted the motion put by Councillor David Elliott for the incentives and residents of the City of Holdfast Bay, which includes the well-known beachside suburbs of Brighton, Glenelg, Hove and Seacliff, can now claim rebates of $200 on e-bikes and regular cargo bikes. Rebates of $300 are on offer for electric cargo bikes.
In the video recorded on Thursday 29th February, WeRide’s Stephen Hodge talks to Councillor David Elliott from the City of Adelaide, the City of Holdfast Bay’s Team Leader – Environment and Coast, Alex Gaut as well as Bicycle SA’s Bailey Underwood about how they did it and why.
Above from top L-R: Councillor David Elliott, Alex Gaut, Bailey Underwood and Stephen Hodge. Click the pic to go to video.
While Adelaide’s incentives are being developed as part of their Sustainability Incentive Scheme and will be available in the next financial year, Holdfast Bay’s incentives were added to an existing ‘Green Living Rebates‘ scheme and were rolled out just 24 hours after the decision was made!
click here to watch video
Alex Gaut specifically mentioned the support she got from the modelling from WeRide on the return on investment of e-bike incentives and how it made Holdfast Bay’s offer a ‘no-brainer’! She has also noted in other interviews that the committed advocacy from locals Andrew Dickson and Meggie Presti made a great impression with their advocacy for e-bikes and e-cargo bikes.
Above: a screen shot from WeRide modelling adapted to the parameter values provided by the City of Holdfast Bay that shows a $10 return for every dollar invested in the $200 rebate.
WeRide’s Executive Officer, Peter Bourke, has demonstrated the live incentive model developed for us by the Institute for Sensible Transport that relies on very conservative input data from the NSW and QLD Government’s own work done by respective Treasury departments. This gives us a high level of confidence we can talk to Councils everywhere on the benefits of these incentives to help them meet their climate and carbon reduction objectives.
Adelaide’s draft Integrated Climate Strategy 2030 notes that 45% of their emissions are due to transport. Each day, 56,000 workers commute into the city, about 43% of the total and they want to see an extra 10% or 10,000 city-bound commuters ride each day. Currently the total is just 2.6% or 3,400 residents ride to work.
click here to watch video
If only incentives and rebates for e-Mobility were this easy to get off the ground across the country we’d have a ‘step change’ in active travel!
This edited conversation* shows just how good advocacy, solid arguments and data, and being in the right place at the right time can make a difference!
Enjoy!
The team at WeRide.