A rural ebike rental scheme in the Aberdeenshire village of Daviot has been launched.
The community group Zero Carbon Daviot (ZCD) has made three ebikes — which are like regular bikes but with an additional electric boost — available for any residents who wants to rent them for the day.
It’s part of the organisation’s ambitions to help the people of village cut their personal greenhouse gas emissions down, and address climate change at a local level.
Although the scheme is mainly aimed at renters using the bikes for leisure right now, the ZCD group has long-term hopes the project could lead to better investment in active travel and public transport options for Daviot, resulting in fewer car journeys.
How does the Daviot ebike hire scheme work?
Unlike, for example, the Aberdeen or Formartine and Buchan Way ebike hire schemes, the Daviot rentals are not done via an app.
Instead, if you want to take out one of the Daviot ebikes for a spin, you have to email the volunteers at ZCD, at ebikes@zerocarbondaviot.org.
They cost £10 for a day’s riding, and this money is primarily used to cover the costs of the hire project.
Lucy Templeman, a member of ZCD, is the main woman behind bringing the scheme to the village.
She explained it all came about after discussions with the Huntly Development Trust, and loaning two of their ebikes for the Daviot community for a trial in summer 2021.
The trial proved so popular that some residents even went out to purchase their own ebikes, and data from the trial was used to help secure funding for Daviot’s own rentable ebikes.
Lucy said: “We were lucky enough that Cycling Scotland granted us almost £11,000 which we used to buy these three ebikes, and get some safe storage as well where we can put them.”
She joked that she currently uses a “hi-tech paper diary” to manage rentals right now, but the ZCD group is working on a website for the scheme.
She added: “We’ve got a group of volunteers who meet you when you rent the bike, explain a little bit of how to use it, and go through some of the dos and don’ts.
“We’ve got some safe routes around the village, and near the village as well which people can follow when they hire the bikes.”
‘Ultimately, we want people to use their cars less’
Lucy said in an ideal world, people renting the bikes would use them for general day-to-day journeys, like going to the shops in Inverurie or commuting to work.
But with the existing infrastructure network of busy and rural roads around Daviot, she says many people don’t feel the routes available to cyclists are the safest.
“We want people to think, well, I don’t need to drive for this, I can just use an ebike instead,” said Lucy.
“But what we saw in the trial is that doesn’t happen yet, and part of the reason for that is the main place people go when they’ve got errands to run is Inverurie.
“And we just don’t have a safe cycle route to Inverurie at the moment.”
She said that from the trial, most renters used the bikes for leisurely rides through the countryside.
“Which is brilliant,” said Lucy, “but ultimately what we want to do is get people out of their cars and using ebikes instead.”
Hopes for future investment
The official launch of the Daviot ebike hire scheme was held in the village at the weekend, and was attended by MSPs Liam Kerr and Maggie Chapman, as well as Ewan Wallace, head of environment and sustainability at Aberdeenshire Council.
The public were invited to come along and test out the bikes for themselves.
Lucy and the rest of the ZCD team say they hope the initial three-bike project could result in bigger things, such as more money put towards improvements for cycling and public transport in the area.
Lucy said: “If we have the bikes and show people want to use these routes, then that will hopefully put pressure on to encourage councillors and MSPs that we really need to prioritise this area.
She added: “We’d really like to thank the MSPs and Ewan for coming along, we had some really brilliant and productive discussions.
“Hopefully our next big steps will be working to find ways to work on new projects to decarbonise transport for anyone in the community.”
You can find out more about Zero Carbon Daviot here.
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