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The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

nytimes.com

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Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

#331

Post by fnord77 »

jkdufair wrote: post #269
fnord77 wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5 miles is quite a distance for a bike commute. I've done about this distance for a while and I won't go back to doing it. Interestingly, the average distance the Dutch ride is about 1.2 miles per day: https://www.peopleforbikes.org/news/best-kept-secret-dutch-b...

A 5 mile commute on an eBike is trivial.

I have a class 3 ebike (28 mph). I found the 5 mile commute exhausting even though I wasn't exerting myself much. Mentally exhausting, I guess. It's trivial once - it's a grind doing it 2x every day. This is in San Francisco. I'm in good shape, I run 4-5 miles a couple times a week.

I think the worst part is a stop sign every block.

Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

#332

Post by dragonwriter »

zdragnar wrote: post #328
slt2021 wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i heard that in US living in downtown is for poor people, and rich people prefer slrawling suburbs

I saw an article the other day about a woman in California who rents a studio apartment (i.e. no dedicated bedroom) for $1900 a month, and was worried it would jump up to the usual $2,300 a month after the covid special pricing ended. Meanwhile, for $2,000 a month in the upper midwest you can rent a house with multiple bedrooms and bathroom on 40 acres of land, or a nicely remodeled house with a small yard and river…

> Meanwhile, for $2,000 a month in the upper midwest you can rent a house with multiple bedrooms and bathroom on 40 acres of land,

Probably do that in rural CA, too (certainly you can get a nice single family home in many CA suburbs), and not be as far (but probably still too far) from the job the individual in question has that enables paying $2,000/mo in the first place. And similar work closer (to either rural CA or the upper Midwest) would pay less.

Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

#333

Post by asdff »

electriclove wrote: post #236
asdff wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got any recommendations?

I spent about $1500 on the 500 series from Ride1Up and paid $100 for a bike mechanic to assemble it: https://ride1up.com/product/city/

That's not exactly under 1k though

Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

#335

Post by xvedejas »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #313
xvedejas wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been explicitly told by my local bike coalition not to stop fully for stop signs. Stopping fully is not particularly safe and local motorists don't even expect it. Given that information, what do you think is the correct behavior for a beginner cyclist like me?

I don't know about the US, but a stop sign here in Australia means complete stop. If you fail to fully stop in your driving test it's an instant fail. If you fail to fully stop and there is an accident, you will be at fault. In Australia, bikes are required to follow the same rules as cars when on the road.

In the US, the letter of the law is that cyclists must make a full stop, yes. But cycling activists often argue that this is a law that needs changing, and would help get more casual riders on bikes. Additionally, most bike riders in cities are on the lower income side; this would reduce how much they're cited for what is fairly accepted behavior.

Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

#336

Post by elzbardico »

danny_codes wrote: post #241
BackBlast wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's... complicated... I rode a bike to school when my limited money would buy a very bad car or a nice bike. So I opted for the bike and had to ride it because that's all I had. I did that for a couple of years - even in the cold and ice. My commute distance varied in my biking days, from 6 to 20 miles. I always obeyed all the traffic laws, though occasionally in the early AM I'd find lights that would not turn gree…

In regards to bike-rider behavior on roads, of course cyclists appear "misbehaved" on roads. The roads are not designed for cyclists, so we have to fight with the design of the transport network to get anywhere Car-oriented transport infrastructure has been a terrible mistake. Don't blame the cyclists for trying to salvage something from the wreckage.

Car-oriented infra structure was responsible for a sizable portion of the economical development for quite a while.

Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

#337

Post by grayfaced »

danielheath wrote: post #212
cmos wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Throw into this confusion a badly implemented public transportation system that you find in most US cities. Public transportation and city bike rental systems should be free to ride. We all pay taxes to keep roads maintained, we should all pay taxes to keep public transportation maintained. Not charging would help busses keep their schedules with less queuing and waiting, tourists would be less likely to rent a car,…

> Public transportation and city bike rental systems should be free to ride. This would depend on first fixing the poverty and homelessness that make theft, vandalism and antisocial behaviour so common. These things cost money to protect them from the impact desperate people otherwise have on them. Now, I’d be thrilled to help pay for that to all happen, but the order should be respected; making trains and buses free…

For some reason people accept cars as the natural order. Challenge that assumption. There are lots of deficient drivers too, why do we so heavily subsidize the road system? Because it's an investment that pays back in increased economic activity. The same argument applies to public transit. In many cases it costs more to collect the fare then they ever make in fare.

Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

#338

Post by dashundchen »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #313
xvedejas wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been explicitly told by my local bike coalition not to stop fully for stop signs. Stopping fully is not particularly safe and local motorists don't even expect it. Given that information, what do you think is the correct behavior for a beginner cyclist like me?

I don't know about the US, but a stop sign here in Australia means complete stop. If you fail to fully stop in your driving test it's an instant fail. If you fail to fully stop and there is an accident, you will be at fault. In Australia, bikes are required to follow the same rules as cars when on the road.

In some US states rolling stops for bikes have been legalized as "Idaho stops".

I have used a bike as my primary transportation for 15 years. The majority of rides are in traffic - there's very little dedicated bike infrastructure (painted sharrows or gutters don't count)

Trust me when I say, in the US, an intersection is the most dangerous place to be. You are a sitting duck if you aren't moving when clear.

A lot of drivers straight up don't pay attention at lights, due to phones or spacing out, and don't give you space when coming up behind you. Mix in right-on-reds, unprotected left turns, and the general drivers failure to negotiate turns - if it's clear I'm going. It's also safer for me to stay at a relatively consistent speed for predictable passing than accelerating in mixed traffic with very different acceleration curves.

Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

#339

Post by zdragnar »

dragonwriter wrote: post #332
zdragnar wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw an article the other day about a woman in California who rents a studio apartment (i.e. no dedicated bedroom) for $1900 a month, and was worried it would jump up to the usual $2,300 a month after the covid special pricing ended. Meanwhile, for $2,000 a month in the upper midwest you can rent a house with multiple bedrooms and bathroom on 40 acres of land, or a nicely remodeled house with a small yard and river…

> Meanwhile, for $2,000 a month in the upper midwest you can rent a house with multiple bedrooms and bathroom on 40 acres of land, Probably do that in rural CA, too (certainly you can get a nice single family home in many CA suburbs), and not be as far (but probably still too far) from the job the individual in question has that enables paying $2,000/mo in the first place. And similar work closer (to either rural CA…

Eh, most people near me commute less than an hour to a metro area with pretty much any job you could want available, if you didn't like what nearby jobs were paying. I'm not quite rural, but not suburbia either (nearest burb is 15 minutes of driving once you get to the highway).

If you went really rural, you would be able to get much more for your money.

Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

#340

Post by cowmoo728 »

fnord77 wrote: post #265
mjmahone17 wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Housing within bicycle commuting distance (under 5 miles) in many cities is abundant, if you’re willing to forgo a car. Especially if you convert the car savings to rent or mortgage payments. Basically, if you can be all-in on not driving, you save a lot. But once you even want to drive a little bit, the savings to driving only sometimes instead of all the time is not very large (and can in fact be negative, as you p…

5 miles is quite a distance for a bike commute. I've done about this distance for a while and I won't go back to doing it. Interestingly, the average distance the Dutch ride is about 1.2 miles per day: https://www.peopleforbikes.org/news/best-kept-secret-dutch-b...

8km is bad if the rider has to wait at a lot of stoplights or cross a lot of roads. But if there's a good cycle path, 8km is a comfortable and easy cruise. Even easier on an e-bike. I did a 9km commute down the west side bike path of Manhattan and I found it to be easy and relaxing compared to much shorter commutes through SF, for example.
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