A very modern version but for one adult:
Twike
111–120 of 203 posts
Re: Twike
#112Another example of how, if you had to design a vehicle for passenger city/suburban use, you would never ever ever come up with an ICE sedan, or to be honest even an electrical vehicle of "normal" proportions. Pretty sure the car is the most harmful invention of the 20th century. The damage it has done to the environment, our health, and social fabric is hard to grok. A couple edits for clarification: - I'm talking ab…
For anyone who has trouble understanding this perspective because they've lived in car-dependent hell their entire lives, I recommend the Not Just Bikes channel. He does extremely detailed comparisons of US cities vs Netherlands and other places. Here is a recent one [1]. For me, I always felt that something was wrong about American cities / suburbs but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then, I spent a few months…
We could build THREE transcontinental high-speed rail lines every year with the money we spend on personal automobiles
Once you get to the western mountains, there are only four rail grades that are suitable for freight. The old Northern through Montana near Glacier National Park; the original Union/Central Pacific route along the Platte and over the Sierras around Donner Pass; the ATSF route across the Colorado Plateau south of the Grand Canyon at Flagstaff and over the Sierras at Tehechapi via the loop, and the all weather grade through the Gadsden Purchase along the Mexico border.
The reason there are so few routes is simply geography. North America's mountains run north-south and there is more than a thousand miles of them between Denver and the coast. And since the west is dry much of what is west of the first line of mountains is desert as well as mountains.
Those are the grades that work for freight to the west coast. Notably, none serve much population between the Mississippi River and the Pacific. West of the Mississippi the US population density is low. The densest state California has about 1/5 the density of the Netherlands. The second most dense, Arizona is 1/20 as dense.
Re: Twike
#113I love this in principle, but the one thing I always wonder about recumbent bicycles is how visible they are to lorries / trucks. I've seen some with a tall aerial-like stem and a flag on top of it, but knowing how bicycles can be pretty invisible to cars even when wearing a reflective top at their eye height, I think I'd always be anxious about being crushed from behind. I suppose that says a lot about cycling infra…
Ah, so they just multiplied the ridiculous cost of bicycles by the ridiculous cost of electric cars. Brilliant.
That would have units of money^2 and wouldn't type-check. You'd have to do something like a geometric mean or choose a money-valued scale, like the price of a smug bumper sticker, to divide by.
Re: Twike
#114These things are still a bit far outside the mainstream, but if anyone hasn't tried an ebike yet, I highly encourage it! It really is magic mobility, with the free feeling of being on a bike, without the sweat or the necessary fitness to travel at 20 or even 25 mph. I don't think Twikes (or other recumbent bikes / velomobiles) will gain popularity in the near term, but I'm very confident that ebikes will continue to…
In the UK they're limited to 15mph and only operate in assist mode (as opposed to full drive). Where are you that allows that kind of speed?
I mean, you can absolutely go faster than 15mph on an electric bike in the UK, it's just that it has to stop providing any boost past that point.
Re: Twike
#115Another example of how, if you had to design a vehicle for passenger city/suburban use, you would never ever ever come up with an ICE sedan, or to be honest even an electrical vehicle of "normal" proportions. Pretty sure the car is the most harmful invention of the 20th century. The damage it has done to the environment, our health, and social fabric is hard to grok. A couple edits for clarification: - I'm talking ab…
I agree with many of your points. One not though, in the state where I live, we have awful drivers (I think) and covid deaths in 2020 were ~100x average yearly motor vehicle deaths.
Re: Twike
#116Another example of how, if you had to design a vehicle for passenger city/suburban use, you would never ever ever come up with an ICE sedan, or to be honest even an electrical vehicle of "normal" proportions. Pretty sure the car is the most harmful invention of the 20th century. The damage it has done to the environment, our health, and social fabric is hard to grok. A couple edits for clarification: - I'm talking ab…
> Pretty sure the car is the most harmful invention of the 20th century.
A bit of perspective: the automobile cleaned up cities, which used to have a huge infrastructure to manage animal waste. The automobile enabled freedoms: not just freedom to travel, which the manufacturers emphasize, but freedom of association, unlocked a wider freedom to work, in particular for women, and in general, ironically, enabled the growth of cities which are themselves not only environmentally more efficient but act as crucibles of growth.
This is not some pro-car screed -- I myself got rid of my cars four years ago and primarily get around on foot, bike, and train. I also recognize the malign influence of the automobile, both IC and electric. But there is an enormous literature on the sociology and economics of the automobile, and I think a blanket condemnation, especially the extreme you mention, is utterly unwarranted.
Re: Twike
#117Another example of how, if you had to design a vehicle for passenger city/suburban use, you would never ever ever come up with an ICE sedan, or to be honest even an electrical vehicle of "normal" proportions. Pretty sure the car is the most harmful invention of the 20th century. The damage it has done to the environment, our health, and social fabric is hard to grok. A couple edits for clarification: - I'm talking ab…
For anyone who has trouble understanding this perspective because they've lived in car-dependent hell their entire lives, I recommend the Not Just Bikes channel. He does extremely detailed comparisons of US cities vs Netherlands and other places. Here is a recent one [1]. For me, I always felt that something was wrong about American cities / suburbs but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then, I spent a few months…
Cities with well thought out public transportation sometimes feel like magic. As a country girl who once moved to a metropolis, the fact that I could walk into literally any subway station and go wherever I wanted in a matter of 30 minutes to an hour at most felt more liberating than I could think of. In a city bigger than some European countries, I had the option to go anywhere I wanted on the weekend for the low price of R$4 and an hour or so listening to music with no stress in my mind.
I hope one day people in the US can experience this feeling as well.
Re: Twike
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
Add to this list: The estrangement that happens when people drive with their SUVs. A car built like a tank entails a certain behavioral or interaction with other people that is detrimental to social cohesion and empathy.
100% this. I live near a school and witnessing the quality of social interactions from Mums* , encapsulated by their SUV-tanks as if controlling a Gundam, is a sight to behold. * Sorry, it mainly is Mums in this situation. And I'm fully cognizant of ejut Dads/Men driving madly in other situations.
I have heard in german-speaking countries they call those style of automobiles "hausfraupanzers". For me, it evokes a silly image of a militant soccer-mom in a tank. I love it.
Re: Twike
#119Another example of how, if you had to design a vehicle for passenger city/suburban use, you would never ever ever come up with an ICE sedan, or to be honest even an electrical vehicle of "normal" proportions. Pretty sure the car is the most harmful invention of the 20th century. The damage it has done to the environment, our health, and social fabric is hard to grok. A couple edits for clarification: - I'm talking ab…
> Pretty sure the car is the most harmful invention of the 20th century. A bit of perspective: the automobile cleaned up cities, which used to have a huge infrastructure to manage animal waste. The automobile enabled freedoms: not just freedom to travel, which the manufacturers emphasize, but freedom of association, unlocked a wider freedom to work, in particular for women, and in general, ironically, enabled the gro…
The automobile did not clean up the streets. The personal automobile was much too expensive for that.
Buses and trams and metros and transport trucks and railways and bicycles cleaned up the streets. The average person didn't own a car and use it daily until much after the streets "cleaned up".
Re: Twike
#120Reminds me of a Sinclar C5[0] (my grandfather worked for the company I believe, there are photos with him, my mum and a bunch of these C5's) It was mired in troubles; low visibility, low range (lead-acid batteries being... low density compared to li-ion), quite easy to break and being easy to steal. Still, I think the form factor is a wonderful idea and it's nice to see some alternative methods being explored for ele…
Those Fatboys look perfect for all sorts of local delivery, food, drugs, groceries in general. Not sure why it's particularly sad that drug dealers have adopted a practical delivery vehicle though.
Because if they’re associated with criminal behaviour then they’re likely to be avoided by ordinary folks.