Bike purists tend to turn their noses up at the humble e-bike – they say if a battery helps you pedal it’s not proper cycling, or something like that. For better or worse, however, the humble electric bike is coming to north London in the first e-bike hire scheme of its kind in Britain. The question is, are they a good idea?

The e-Boris Bikes will be introduced to hilly Muswell Hill in Haringey some time next year, with a self-contained network of docking stations separate from the current bike hire system. E-bikes were part of Mayor Boris Johnson’s £913m Vision for Cycling plan, launched in March, one of its main aims to get people cycling who aren’t already, to ‘de-Lycrafy’ cycling in Johnson’s own words.

Having lived in Haringey, albeit in its less affluent areas, I’ve experienced Muswell Hill’s almost alpine ascents, some of which are astonishingly tiring on foot, let alone on two wheels. While I like a good hill, most people I know don’t feel the same way. This is where the power-assisted bike steps in.

According to research by Transport for London, while the main reason people take up cycling is to get fit, lack of fitness is a deterrent to 8% of its respondents. Not to mention that in hilly areas even some fit potential cyclists are understandably reluctant to turn up red-faced and clammy to a workplace without showers.

The e-bike is a boon for older people, too. According to Oxford Brookes University, in the UK cycling represents 1% of journeys in over-65s, compared with 23% in the Netherlands and 15% in Denmark. The university has just started a study into the role of e-bikes in keeping people active into older age, as for many, regular cycling becomes too physically demanding.

Guardian reporter Peter Walker visits a newly opened e-bike shop called justebikes, to find out the secret to this continental e-bike craze and whether such an innovation will catch on in the UK Guardian

Continental Europe has embraced the e-bike, which is, in places, 20% of the cycle market, and though it may be power-assisted pedalling, if it gets someone outdoors and pedalling (you can generally choose the amount of assistance the bike gives you) it’s certainly healthier than sitting in a car or a bus.

This doesn’t change the fact, however, that fear of the roads remains the single biggest issue preventing people from getting on their bikes. According to sustainable transport charity Sustrans, a quarter of the UK population don’t have access to a car. An increasing number of those will never have driven, leaving the roads a bewildering environment of aggressive, fast-moving traffic. The thought of whizzing along on a powered bike on the open road is probably not one the more timid individual would relish.

However, Haringey will have new back-street and park routes, known in Mayorspeak as quietways, to complement the new e-bike network. If this network is done properly, with safe, direct routes, especially at junctions, and if the number one barrier to cycling – fear of traffic – is addressed by reducing speed limits, this will go some way to bringing in a new breed of e-bikers. I for one welcome them.