E-Bikes and the Urban Commute

So the brothers—both industrial designers—return to Amsterdam and decide they will build a bike for the people they didn’t see cycling in New York: “the ultimate urban commuter bike,” Mr. Carlier says. They launch VanMoof, and soon realize that New York, as well as London, Paris and San Francisco, are not small, flat Amsterdam. E-bikes, Mr. Carlier says, were the answer: An electric motor provides extra zip so the daily commute is not a sweaty workout. VanMoof now sells e-bikes that run from about $2,500 to $3,500. The bikes have battery cells built inside the frame, built-in lights, built-in locks and built-in trackers. If you pay extra, VanMoof promises to find your bike if it’s stolen, or replace it.

Mr. Carlier talked with the Journal about what’s next for cycling in cities.

What got you thinking that this was an exciting thing to spend your time on?

We started thinking, if we really want to get the next billion people on bikes, we need to switch to e-bikes. So that’ s what we did two or three years after we started. Looking back, I think we were the first who saw the opportunity of what e-bikes can do to change cities.

Why weren’t people bicycling around New York the way they do in Amsterdam?

In Amsterdam right now, 50% of all commutes are on a bike. That’s easy because Amsterdam is flat, it has a perfect cycling climate and it’s a pretty small city. If you want to commute on a bike in New York, it’s much more challenging. 

There wasn’t the right e-bike back then for commuting, and that’s what we started to create. And that means focus on, first of all, being able to ride that bike in normal clothes. So, no spandex. Second thing was safety, like the integrated bicycle lights, and the third thing was—really important—anti-theft, you can’t commute on an expensive e-bike if you constantly have the fear of it being stolen. We fixed those three things.

Amsterdam has a perfect cycling climate? It’s a little wet. Do the Dutch have a solution for not getting your legs wet?

A raincoat and a poncho. Not really. But I think if you cycle to work every day for 20 minutes or half an hour, you only get wet once every two or three months. It’s not as bad as people think. Not even in London. And there are great ponchos and raincoats available. But you’re right. That’s the only big problem that we haven’t solved completely. 

Put your futurist hat on. What should we get to in 25 or 50 years?

By then bike lanes are outdated because as soon as you build bike lanes—and they will build a lot of bike lanes in the next decades—so many bikes will appear that you will create bicycle traffic jams like in London. So it’s better to move the cars to just a few roads. Limit the space that the cars can use. That’s the most important thing that cities can do in the next 20 to 30 years. That’s also what I think will happen.

In the next 30 years it’s all about efficiency. Efficiency of space, efficiency of time and efficiency of fuel consumption, and even the efficiency of how much noise you can make. The transport that’s going to win is the most efficient way of transport. Two-wheelers are more efficient than four-wheelers, and I think e-bikes are one of the most efficient ways of transport there is. So I think that in the next 10 to 20 years we will see a massive increase of cyclists in all major cities across this planet.

Should the product really be not the bike, but the trip? It doesn’t so much matter whether it’s bike-plus-electric car or bike-plus-rail, or whatever—should selling something integrated be the goal as opposed to everybody having his or her own bike?

No. I believe in ownership. Although I love bike sharing, it’s an alternative to taxis, not public transport. I think owned e-bikes have the possibility to be a form of mass transport in cities that might not have the perfect underground experience. For example, in Williamsburg, [Brooklyn], it’s still quite a far walk to the L train. For lots of people, just taking the e-bike directly over the bridge into Manhattan is much faster than public transport. On top of that, they have the flexibility to go somewhere else, get some groceries on the way back and have some exercise. In public transport, and especially underground, you become like a machine and, in my opinion, you’ll miss that connection with the city.

Sounds a lot like the way people thought of cars. The car allowed you freedom to do things.

I think that’s true, and it’s basically a more efficient variant of the car.

Saudi Arabia plans to build a megacity called Neom. If you were going to suggest how they could integrate micromobility into a totally new city from scratch, what would you say?

Create space for light electric vehicles. It could be e-bikes, it could be e-scooters, it could be small electric cars. But the way we transport people between cities is not the same. We can’t use the same tools for inner-urban transport. I don’t know if public transport is the solution for every city. People want the freedom and the flexibility to be able to find their own direction in combination with public transport. So, I would advise them to have many plugs on the streets and to create space for that.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Write to Charles Forelle at [email protected]

So the brothers—both industrial designers—return to Amsterdam and decide they will build a bike for the people they didn’t see cycling in New York: “the ultimate urban commuter bike,” Mr. Carlier says. They launch VanMoof, and soon realize that New York, as well as London, Paris and San Francisco, are not small, flat Amsterdam. E-bikes, Mr. Carlier says, were the answer: An electric motor provides extra zip so the daily commute is not a sweaty workout. VanMoof now sells e-bikes that run from about $2,500 to $3,500. The bikes have battery cells built inside the frame, built-in lights, built-in locks and built-in trackers. If you pay extra, VanMoof promises to find your bike if it’s stolen, or replace it.

Mr. Carlier talked with the Journal about what’s next for cycling in cities.

What got you thinking that this was an exciting thing to spend your time on?

We started thinking, if we really want to get the next billion people on bikes, we need to switch to e-bikes. So that’ s what we did two or three years after we started. Looking back, I think we were the first who saw the opportunity of what e-bikes can do to change cities.

Why weren’t people bicycling around New York the way they do in Amsterdam?

In Amsterdam right now, 50% of all commutes are on a bike. That’s easy because Amsterdam is flat, it has a perfect cycling climate and it’s a pretty small city. If you want to commute on a bike in New York, it’s much more challenging. 

There wasn’t the right e-bike back then for commuting, and that’s what we started to create. And that means focus on, first of all, being able to ride that bike in normal clothes. So, no spandex. Second thing was safety, like the integrated bicycle lights, and the third thing was—really important—anti-theft, you can’t commute on an expensive e-bike if you constantly have the fear of it being stolen. We fixed those three things.

Amsterdam has a perfect cycling climate? It’s a little wet. Do the Dutch have a solution for not getting your legs wet?

A raincoat and a poncho. Not really. But I think if you cycle to work every day for 20 minutes or half an hour, you only get wet once every two or three months. It’s not as bad as people think. Not even in London. And there are great ponchos and raincoats available. But you’re right. That’s the only big problem that we haven’t solved completely. 

Put your futurist hat on. What should we get to in 25 or 50 years?

By then bike lanes are outdated because as soon as you build bike lanes—and they will build a lot of bike lanes in the next decades—so many bikes will appear that you will create bicycle traffic jams like in London. So it’s better to move the cars to just a few roads. Limit the space that the cars can use. That’s the most important thing that cities can do in the next 20 to 30 years. That’s also what I think will happen.

In the next 30 years it’s all about efficiency. Efficiency of space, efficiency of time and efficiency of fuel consumption, and even the efficiency of how much noise you can make. The transport that’s going to win is the most efficient way of transport. Two-wheelers are more efficient than four-wheelers, and I think e-bikes are one of the most efficient ways of transport there is. So I think that in the next 10 to 20 years we will see a massive increase of cyclists in all major cities across this planet.

Should the product really be not the bike, but the trip? It doesn’t so much matter whether it’s bike-plus-electric car or bike-plus-rail, or whatever—should selling something integrated be the goal as opposed to everybody having his or her own bike?

No. I believe in ownership. Although I love bike sharing, it’s an alternative to taxis, not public transport. I think owned e-bikes have the possibility to be a form of mass transport in cities that might not have the perfect underground experience. For example, in Williamsburg, [Brooklyn], it’s still quite a far walk to the L train. For lots of people, just taking the e-bike directly over the bridge into Manhattan is much faster than public transport. On top of that, they have the flexibility to go somewhere else, get some groceries on the way back and have some exercise. In public transport, and especially underground, you become like a machine and, in my opinion, you’ll miss that connection with the city.

Sounds a lot like the way people thought of cars. The car allowed you freedom to do things.

I think that’s true, and it’s basically a more efficient variant of the car.

Saudi Arabia plans to build a megacity called Neom. If you were going to suggest how they could integrate micromobility into a totally new city from scratch, what would you say?

Create space for light electric vehicles. It could be e-bikes, it could be e-scooters, it could be small electric cars. But the way we transport people between cities is not the same. We can’t use the same tools for inner-urban transport. I don’t know if public transport is the solution for every city. People want the freedom and the flexibility to be able to find their own direction in combination with public transport. So, I would advise them to have many plugs on the streets and to create space for that.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Write to Charles Forelle at [email protected]