Ethics of (e-)Cycling: A Preliminary Overview

This chapter aims to discuss the uptake of (e-)bikes from the viewpoint of the ethics of transportation. More specifically, it intends to identify and critically examine the moral values and arguments that are commonly mobilized when (e-)cycling is presented as a promising means of transportation for current and future mobility scenarios. Two lines of inquiry are explored. First, e-bikes, being a hybrid of active and motorized means of transportation, interestingly intersect calls for both modal shift towards cycling and transition to e-mobility solutions. The two visions, however, do not necessarily rest on shared ethical grounds, which might generate confusion and, thus, require further clarification. Secondly, projects aimed at fostering the use of (e-)bikes in urban and non-urban contexts also rest on value frameworks that only partially overlap, which equally poses the need for a critical examination of their different normative presuppositions. By studying the ethics of (e-)cycling along these two axes, the contribution endeavours to provide a critical discussion of the moral desiderata linked to this transport mode and, thus, to support ethical awareness in its integration into current and future transportation systems.