When Sakine Cihan died of injuries she sustained in a road collision last month, she was said to be the first pedestrian to be killed by an e-bike in the UK. It is feared that the growing craze for power-assisted cycling means she won’t be the last.
Cihan was crossing Kingsland High Street in Dalston, east London, when she was struck by a Specialized electric bike. The rider was arrested a day later after he came forward, and then released under investigation.
The fatal incident just after 5pm on 28 August was captured in CCTV footage. It is not clear from the video that it was anything more than a tragic accident. But it has prompted a debate about whether electric bikes create new safety concerns – or are simply the latest outlet for hostility towards cyclists when motor vehicles remain by far the more dangerous form of transport.
Electric bikes are soaring in popularity. Around 50,000 are sold each year in the UK and a survey by Mintel found that one in 20 people planned to buy one in the next 12 months.
The engines on e-bikes are fitted with a cut-out device to ensure they go no faster than 15.5mph. But it is relatively easy to disable the device to allow the bikes to reach much faster speeds. There is no suggestion that this occurred on the bike involved in Cihan’s death, but the incident has prompted calls for tougher laws.
A Newcastle-based firm of solicitors, Browell Smith and Co, said there were “fewer restrictions on e-bike use on UK roads than motorbikes yet they do pose an increased risk of danger on the roads”.
In the Netherlands, where e-bikes account for almost 30% of all new bike sales, there has been a sharp rise in accidents involving them, with 341 in the first half of this year alone. Last year for the first time, more Dutch people died on a bike than in a car. Of those 206 deaths, a quarter involved e-bikes, according to figures obtained by Rotterdam’s Algemeen Dagblad. Police put the figures down to other road users being unable to properly assess their speed.
In the UK, the government is consulting on plans to introduce a new offence of causing death by dangerous cycling. Living Streets, a group that campaigns for pedestrians, is backing the change. In response to Cihan’s death, its chief executive, Joe Irvin, said: “People using e-bikes are subject to the same rules as those on non-motorised bikes; however, users of e-bikes should be made aware of any potential differences, such as the bike’s weight, so they can cycle safely and responsibly.”
Irvin is anxious to stress that tougher laws on cycling should not detract from the much greater threat posed to pedestrians by cars. “There is a need to think about a change to the law on death by dangerous cycling to bring it into line with motoring offences,” he said. “However, it would be remiss to only look at cycling when 99% of road deaths are caused by motor vehicles.”
The London Cycling Campaign (LCC) says the government has got its priorities wrong. Its chief executive, Ashok Sinha, said: “Driving dangerously is a much greater source of serious injury and death on our roads, so it seems a bit odd to us that the focus of the government should be on the very, very rare occasions in which a pedestrian is killed in a collision with a cyclist.”
He added: “If they are properly regulated, e-bikes are a good thing. Some people do disable the speed limiter and that should be stopped. But they do not inherently pose a greater danger.”
Sinha claimed that the increased uptake in e-bikes would make streets safer. More people cycling, including on e-bikes, would help create a critical mass of bikes on the roads, making other road users expect their presence and adjust their behaviour accordingly.
The LCC is backing an e-bike industry campaign to encourage sales by offering tax breaks. It wants the government to raise the cycle to work scheme above the current £1,000 limit to allow it to cover the higher cost of e-bikes. A YouGov survey by Ovo Energy this month found that almost half of cycling commuters would switch to e-bikes if the cap was lifted.
Sinha expressed concerned that Cihan’s death raised unwarranted fears about the growth e-bikes and could be used to vilify cyclists more generally.
“Whenever someone is hit by a cyclist there are commentators who say ‘bloody cyclist’ and use it to argue against the growth in protected cycle lanes. They jump on every collision and use it for all kinds of measures that would make it more difficult to ride a bike.”
But he said the health benefits of increased cycling, in whatever form, far outweighed the added risks involved.