Impacts of topography and weather barriers on commercial cargo bicycle energy using urban delivery crowdsourced cycling data

Abstract Commercial cargo bicycles have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, traffic congestion, and delivery times. However, urban physical barriers and small cargo capacities could limit their uptake in city logistics. This analysis explores the effects of payload, air density, wind, and topography on commercial cargo bicycle energy use in cities with a focus on six European capitals (Berlin, Paris, Rome, Lisbon, Oslo, and London), and is supported by an empirical model using GPS traces and hourly weather data. The study finds that city hilliness could deplete up to 13-34% of the riders’ energy use, while wind speed can negatively affect the bikes’ energy use by up to 12-23%. Air-density effects are small; however, in cold cities like Oslo, they could reduce riders’ energy use by up to 8% in wintertime. These estimates can enable future studies to assess the operational feasibility of commercial cargo bicycles and help policy makers to promote their use by subsidizing the purchase of batteries to mitigate energy use differences across cities due to topographic or weather effects. Results revealed that, across the cities in this study, this “ideal battery size” varies from 0.1-0.8 kWh in Berlin to 1.6-2.1 kWh in Lisbon.