European Folding Bike MarketPotential to Enhance Urban Mobility

Contents

• Introduction and overview• The need for improved urban mobility• Solutions for urban congestion• Spatial Route Area Analyses• Folding bikes as an integral multi-modal transportation solution• Market size• Market trends• Market growth rate• Market players and partners• Environmental, economic and quality of life impact• Closing thoughts and future work

The EU acknowledges the importance of intermodality, at least in principle, and it is referred to on numerous occasions in the 2011 White Paper: Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area – Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system.

Unfortunately, the ECF considers that in practice the EU could be doing more to encourage intermodality, particularly in relation to bicycles being used in combination with public transport.For example, at the moment, rail operators are only required to “enable passengers to bring bicycles on to the train, where appropriate for a fee, if they are easy to handle, if this does not adversely affect the specific rail service, and if the rolling-stock so permits” (Regulation (EC) No 1371/2007).The provision of bikes on buses is also extremely scarce. The legislation at EU level which looks at the roadworthiness of vehicles and that of regulating the bus manufacturers (2007/46/EC) is confusing and needs to be updated.ECF would like to see the EU be more proactive in encouraging intermodality.

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