On the 23rd of November, SOLUTIONSplus launched a pilot in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) promoting pedal-assist electric bicycles for urban deliveries. These e-bikes will be used by the cycling cooperative FASTA to deliver packages in the city including medical parcels for the Aga Khan hospital. Leaning on the experience gathered by FASTA in the past few years with conventional bicycles, the e-bike pilot aims to increase the convenience of deliveries for the cooperative, give cyclists more visibility, and improve their business.
During the training and assembly workshop hosted by the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology Company Limited (DIT), the project partners EURIST and Fabio trained participants on how to use the e-bikes, before going into a two-day practical training on assembling the components to form the e-bike. Local assembly and the upgrading of maintenance skills is a key component of the pilot, enabled by the in-depth expertise of EURIST, FABIO and DIT.
The 6-month pilot has now started, during which the cyclists will benefit from the support of DIT providing storage of the e-bikes and charging of the batteries. GPS tracking and regular discussion with the cyclists will allow for continuous monitoring and sharing of learnings.
All partners are convinced of the major opportunities provided by e-bikes in cities: they enable more people to cycle - allowing active mobility and corresponding health benefits-, allow higher loads, longer trips, and are much more space-efficient than larger vehicles such as cars.
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