Inverclyde in the west of Scotland is a beautiful place, but the terrain is hilly and tough to navigate without a car. Electric bikes make journeys easier for residents - reducing congestion and encouraging them to be more active.
Bike hire schemes are growing in popularity across the UK, but Inverclyde lacks the population density to warrant a full scheme similar to those found in cities across the UK. Inverclyde is a stunning part of Scotland, sitting on the banks of the Clyde estuary, but it's an incredibly hilly area with inclines of over 450 feet. It can be challenging for residents to navigate the area without using carbon based transport, like cars or buses, but we wanted to change that.
Add Jam worked alongside the Inverclyde Community Trust and the Cloch Housing Association to develop an eBike hire scheme, encouraging Inverclyde residents to be more active and reduce their impact on the environment. eBikes.scot was funded by Nesta, and allows residents to hire an electronic bike for free.
Getting started
Work started on the eBikes project in December 2018, with Add Jam working closely alongside the Inverclyde Community Trust team to map out the user journey and create a wireframe of the product. Throughout the project, Add Jam worked in tandem with the Inverclyde Community Trust team to empower them to "own" the app going forward. To do this, we focused on upskilling team members and providing them with the necessary knowledge to make changes and maintain the codebase for the app by themselves.
