Study title

The dataset consists of professionally transcribed semi-structured interviews (n=110). The interviews were between 20 and 90 minutes long. They were recorded before (n=48) and after (n=55) month-long free loans of electric cargo bikes in suburbs of Leeds, Oxford and Brighton in Summer-Autumn 2023, and after (n=10) winter loans of the e-cargo bikes for between 3 and 6 months in Winter-Spring 2023-4. Leeds pre-summer interviews (n=16) Leeds post-summer interviews (n=18) Leeds post-winter interviews (n=3) Oxford pre-summer interviews (n-16) Oxford post-summer interviews (n-19) Oxford post-winter interviews (n-3) Brighton pre-summer interviews (n=17) Brighton post-summer interviews (n=18) Brighton post-winter interviews (n=4) These interviews collected pre-trial everyday travel routines and expectations of use of the e-cargo bikes with the post-trial reality. This enabled us to explore: which trips had been undertaken with the e-cargo bike, and why; which had not, and why; which travel routines suited the e-cargo bike; which unexpected trips were generated with its availability; the subjective, affective and embodied experiences of e-cargo bike usage, as well as the post-trial intention to buy, and recommendations to policy-makers about how to make e-cargo bike usage and ownership more attractive. Some interviews involved multiple householders, including children.The UK transport sector lags behind all other sectors in its achievement of energy diversification and carbon emission reductions to date, with emissions from transport essentially unchanged since the benchmark year of 1990. The Committee on Climate Change have been very critical of this failure and identified electrically-assisted scooters and bikes as part of solutions that need to be urgently accelerated. Indeed, the UK lags behind other countries in the uptake of a range of innovative light vehicles for both passenger and freight applications. Examples include electrically-assisted: bicycles, cargo...