E-bike boom exposes regulatory and insurance gaps

The use of e-bikes has grown rapidly in recent years, but licensing laws, safety requirements and accident data reporting has struggled to keep up, making it increasingly hard for insurers to offer broad and informed coverage.

This is according to a whitepaper from insurance and analytics consultancy Angelica Solutions, titled Pedalling into the unknown – the hidden human and insurance cost of the UK’s eBike boom. 

Released in June of this year, the report also revealed that road safety practices and rider etiquette had worsened for e-bike users compared to traditional cyclists.

Only 46% of e-bike users were found to stop at red lights, compared to 64% of cyclists, and only 19% of e-bike riders were found to wear helmets, compared to 58% of cyclists.

These regressions pose a large problem, with e-bike usage climbing rapidly in recent years. Some 50% of 18 to 34 year olds use an e-bike weekly, as well as 80% of gig economy drivers utilising them.

Serious collisions

Angelica Solutions explained that the lapses in road safety will propagate into insurance claims, given that some 90% of the approximately 4,000 serious cyclist collisions a year involved a motor vehicle, and often led to “claims against drivers, even when cyclists may have been negligent or reckless”.

The severity of these collisions is often augmented by the heavier and faster design of e-bikes, with a typical Lime bike weighing over three times that of a standard bicycle.

With many cyclists uninsured and financially exposed to this risk, it has become a growing area of uncovered losses.

The report also called for improvements in the collection of incident data under the STATS19 road safety data reports. Currently, e-bikes are not commonly differentiated from standard bicycles in accident reporting, nor is helmet usage recorded.

Collecting these data points, the firm said, will allow the efficient and eco-friendly mode of transport to be made safer and more insurable.