Hossein Nosratzadeh

Evaluating the impact of financial incentives on promoting e-bike usage: A hybrid modeling framework

Hossein is a PhD student with an academic background in civil engineering and transportation planning and engineering. His research aims to investigate the impact of financial incentives on promoting e-bike usage in urban areas.

With the numerous positive factors associated with e-bikes toward society, a higher modal share of e-bikes will ultimately contribute to more liveable environments and a healthier population. Policies addressing the barriers to e-bike adoption may contribute to increasing the number of e-bike riders. Besides the documented barriers for riding a c-bike or e-bike such as lack of high-quality infrastructure (particularly infrastructure that separates bike riders from cars) and concerns related to rider safety, multiple studies have indicated that the high price of e-bikes is the greatest barrier to its adoption. Financial incentive programs aimed at reducing the initial expense of e-bikes may be effective in increasing their uptake, but little is known about the design and potential outcomes of such programs, particularly in Australia where there are no financial incentives for e-bike adoption.

This project aims to explore the practical and theoretical implications of financial incentives to encourage e-bike use over motorised transport. By combining behavioural and utility maximisation models developed through discrete choice experiments, we will gain a deeper understanding of e-bike mode choice and evaluate the effectiveness of financial incentives in reflecting mobility conditions in Melbourne. Agent-based modelling and micro-simulation will be used to test scenarios and provide practical insights for Australian authorities in designing and implementing efficient incentives that maximise health, environmental, economic, and equity benefits.

Hossein is supervised by Associate Professor Benjamin Beck, Associate Professor Jason Thompson, Dr Debjit Bhowmick and Dr Thao Thai.