Environmentally Neutral Electric Bike Share System

IDI is proposing an electrically assisted e-bike system, designed to increase the usage of bicycles for daily commuting. This design is intended for usage alongside traditional bike share programs in cities across the country. The primary benefit is attract those otherwise unwilling to use bicycles to commute, either due to personal reservation or perceived terrain difficulties. This is accomplished through unique technical features such as electric power-assist for climbing steep hills, modular batteries that can be carried based on your commuting distances, and solar charging that will allow bicycles to recharge off the Power Grid. Other key features are safety lighting and traffic alert sensors that will warn bicyclists of approaching traffic. During the Phase2 program, IDI will develop and package our EnergE-bike retrofit kit for integration into existing bikeshare programs. Several prototype kits will be built and installed for evaluation by bike share managers. The proposed system is designed for easy use for beginning bicyclists, and to “train” more advanced users to use the system primarily in cases of extreme gradients. These functionalities play a social engineering role, encouraging users to only take advantage of the electric functionality when necessary, as well as encouraging the transition to traditional bicycles.