Leave the house, get on the bike, take a train, get back on the bike and get to work. This is what is called intermodal mobility, in which two or more means of transport are taken to reach a destination in the shortest time possible in the most efficient way possible.
It is everyday life for thousands of European citizens and it is, without a doubt, one of the big bets of governments and city councils throughout our continent. Because burning liters of fuel loaded into a five-seater vehicle that occupies more than four meters in length and more than one and a half meters in width is, of all things, less efficient in a city.
In that work for intermodalitythe electric scooter has gained decisive weight in recent years. The boom in this product has forced countries like Spain to adapt certain regulations to assimilate its arrival. In our country, the DGT has been forced to define this vehicle as an object that You must go on the road or bike pathshaving to leave the sidewalk.
The electric scooter, in fact, has overshadowed another key market niche in intermodal mobility: the folding bicycle. This means of transport is highly efficient because it allows travel to a public transport station, easy transport of the vehicle and the possibility of storing it in a very small space at our destination.
At the moment, the folding bicycle is a vehicle that is still difficult to see in our cities but there are those who trust in its possibilities: large stores.
From the supermarket to work
There are reasons to use the electric scooter over the folding bicycle but, lately, the latter is beginning to gain in importance over the former. And the electric scooter is being banished from public transport after a handful of fires that were difficult to put out that led to severe problems in transportation in cities like Madrid.
The folding bicycle is a good solution because it is usually a light product but also has the advantage of being able to fold enough to leave it in most of the jobs. It is also a good option for those who travel in a caravan but do not want to drag a large bicycle into the center of cities or towns.
It is not easy to find data that clearly points to the penetration of folding bicycles because most statistics do not discriminate the data between this and any other type. Despite this, there are analysts who point out that the market is going up and that its growth will be just over 7% until 2034.
The growth, point out in this reportaims to be extraordinarily high in large US cities, with increases of more than 30%. However, this is also because they are cities where car culture is still much more rooted than in Europe.
Netherlands, Hapon, and Belgium They are the most repeated countries when talking about this type of bicycles. And the combination between Bicycle and public transport are very entrenched in areas where this means of transport and the train are combined daily. In fact, it is one of the reasons why The Netherlands has more bicycles than inhabitants And a good number of citizens have two bicycles that they park at the train station next to their home and another in the city where they work.
In bikepormadridfor example, explain well the problems of cycling when the station is very busy and the space to travel with it is limited. And in both cases, the time it takes to find a space in the gigantic Danish or Dutch car parks and the limitations on moving them inside the car can discourage their use.
That is why the folding bicycle is a very interesting alternative which has the advantage of being able to move easily, an incentive to have only one vehicle and, above all, for countries where Spain often lacks the safe and well-conditioned spaces to store bicycles yes they have them in other parts of Europe.
Large stores are aware of the market niche that the folding bicycle still represents. Surfaces like Lidl either Carrefour They bet on it with options for less than 1,000 euros and Decathlon remains the undisputed leader when it comes to offering options, with bicycles from just over 200 euros to more than 2,000 euros.
The true differential point of the electric bicycle is 1,000 euros and below. Figures collected by Cyclosphere they point out that the demand The number of bicycles has cooled in Spain in recent years and those focused purely on urban mobility are the ones that have fallen the most. Here, The electric scooter has done a lot of damage to the bicycle and that is why the range of less than 1,000 euros is the most interesting because when the customer spends more money they usually opt for other options such as electric, road or mountain bikes.
The great advantage of the folding scooter, as we said, compared to the electric scooter is that its transportation and storage capacity at the destination is very similar but, in addition, the cyclist has the greater stability of the bicycle. A clear advantage in terms of security. But it can also be taken on public transport, a space that is increasingly closed to electric scooters.
Photo | Rex Lovic and Mateus Jud
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