Realising it took the same amount of time to ride to work than to drive was the catalyst Katya Crema needed to ditch the car and embrace an electric cargo bicycle.
That was three years ago and in that time her family has grown by two and they’ve added another e-bike.
“I started off riding the e-bike from Middle Park to work in Brunswick and found that not only did it take the same time as the car, but I could use the bike during the day to go to meetings,” Katya says.
“Since then we’ve had two kids and our Benno e-bike has been adapted with every variation of seats as the kids have grown up. It’s been perfect for childcare drop-off and pick-up.
“We started with just the front seat but then moved to the back and then with our second child we had both the front and back seats. Recently we transitioned both to the back and eventually they’ll be on a bench seat at the back.
Katya is no slouch when it comes to physical activity. She represented Australia in ski cross at two Winter Olympics and she got into bike riding as part of cross training.
Since she’s retired from elite skiing she’s been an avid road cyclist, so much so she’s been made one of Giant Bikes’ LIV ambassadors.
“I also love mountain bike riding, still for the exercise, but I get to enjoy the bush while riding and it gives me some of the same feelings as skiing.”
She’s a perfect example of how e-bikes are not replacing bike riding but car use.
“I’m a confident road cyclist and mountain biker but on the e-bike I try to take bike paths wherever I can because safety is really front of mind, although drivers are more considerate when they see kids on the bike.”
“We’ve recently bought a regular city e-bike so we can go on family outings together. It’s just so much more convenient to visit the museum or the gardens and not have to worry about finding a car park or overstaying it.
“We’re at the point where we could probably get rid of our second car now that our youngest son is strong enough to sit up in the bike seat.
Katya was one of the speakers at the Bicycle Network E-bike Expo held on Sunday 7 April at the Brunswick Velodrome in Melbourne. She shared her experiences with the crowd of getting set up on an e-bike and how it’s changed how her family gets around.
She also talked about her work in sustainable architectural design, with her latest apartment project offering more bike parking spaces than it does car parking and a bike shop located in the ground floor retail space.
And of course she arrived at the expo on her e-bike.