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The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is home to the nation's first fully-automated
electric bike sharing station - make that two stations - thanks to research questions
posed by civil and environmental engineering assistant professor Chris Cherry. "We have
electric-assist bikes that have an electric motor in the hub that allows users to go up
hills with more ease. We also have regular bicycles that are included in the system so
if someone has a preference for regular bicycles they can use those regular bicycles." One station,
located in Presidential Court, uses power off the grid. The other, on the Agriculture
campus, uses solar power. Registered members of Cherry's pilot program easily check out
bikes with a swipe of their university ID. "When the user wants to check out a bike, first
they have to check out a battery. Here we have the battery vending system that allows
us to distribute the right battery to the user. The battery that ensures the minimum
state of charge - meaning they can go a certain distance on a single change. We give them
the battery - this is a lithium-ion battery, they close the door. Then we send them to
a bike - an electric bike that’s ready to go. They slide the battery in the back, lock
it up and then check the bike out." Cherry and his team are collecting data on a number
of questions related to safety, environmental impact, and travel behavior to see if electric
bikes could become more popular here in the US. "One of the main motivations for including
electric bikes in a bike sharing system is I was hoping to expose more people to a relatively
very efficient mode of transportation. A lot of people won't bicycle around campus and
East Tennessee because of the terrain and weather and other things. Electric bikes can
help overcome that." According to Cherry, electric bikes also overcome air quality and environmental
health issues by displacing other more polluting modes of transportation.