Tom Edwards from BBC London is asking the right questions. And hints at some of the best answers.
Welcome to Barnes2050, a place-based futures project asking: how do we help Barnes - the place and its people - thrive and be climate-ready by 2050? If this is your first visit, you might want to start here.
Notes and thoughts
E-bikes are growing in popularity. More than 1.5 million hire e-bike journeys were made in Richmond borough in 2025.
This is good news for Barnes SW13, Richmond borough and London.
That is why Barnes2050 believes we should embrace the e-bike generation, starting with Gen Z.
That confidence does not mean turning a blind eye to three problems, all seen in Barnes:
e-motos
reckless riding
anti-social parking
E-motos are not e-bikes
A legal e-bike, technically an electrically assisted pedal cycle has pedals, a motor with a maximum continuous rated power of 250 watts and electrical assistance which cuts out at 15.5 mph.
Some of the machines now being ridden on London’s streets look like e-bikes but are, in law, motor vehicles, sometimes called e-motos.
And they can be fast.
As Peter Walker put it in The Guardian:
As a cyclist I want the authorities to act with clarity. Lime bikes and renters can be annoying, but the true threat is those who dangerously flout the law.
Get this menace off our roads.
The Met has intensified enforcement. Putney Police recently tested 30 e-bikes and scooters near Putney High Street. They seized 19.
Reckless riding is a menace
Pedestrians are threatened by cyclists careering along the pavement. Other cyclists - including me - loathe seeing fellow riders ignore the red lights.
Anti-social parking should be the easiest to fix
But it will be hard. Made harder, according to the Mayor, because the UK government is taking too long introducing regulations for dockless e-bike schemes, with the rules not due to be in place until at least 2028.
Three different problems requiring three different solutions. None of the answers include fewer e-bikes.
I write this as part of the next e-bike generation, the Boomers, for whom battery support for a hill, or pulling away at a busy roundabout, is welcome relief.
A few days ago I celebrated 4,000 miles on my Volt e-bike in the three years since I ordered from their Milton Keynes factory.
The more useful e-bikes become, the more important it is that we deal with the things giving them a bad name.
Continue exploring: Embrace the e-bike generation
E-bikes could make many more local journeys practical and our younger residents happier if Barnes gives them the space to flourish.
More stories about encouraging e-bikes.
💡New Barnes Pier enabling daily river buses - WIP Proposal
Barnes Pier should be restored, enabling daily commuter and visitor traffic east and west along the Thames. This is an ambitious proposal. It is also barely formed. But it is credible because it is important.