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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

#441

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

mcny wrote: post #434
richiebful1 wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't generalize to most cities though. In my Rust Belt city, the government has put a lot of effort into making cycling safer on the road. The people cycling from one neighborhood to the next are a diverse bunch. Kids are using cheap hand-me-down bikes to go to school. College kids are commuting to campus. Adults of all ages are riding to work at a service job or downtown office. What it took was a focus on g…

» What it took was a focus on good quality bike lanes outside the affluent white neighborhoods, bike accessibility at transit stations/on busses, and expansion of bikeshare to poorer neighborhoods. I've never been to Chattanooga, TN but once I realized I can work from home I've been curious about owning a home somewhere with gigabit fiber but without ridiculously expensive real estate within commuting distance to a C…

TN is a tax haven state. You're not going to get polished municipal services and infrastructure.

Western New York has cheap housing and older, 150+ year old urbanization that doesn't suffer as much from 20th century shortsightedness.

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

#442

Post by xmprt »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #376
lmm wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's ass-backwards. If you can't drive safely around children then you shouldn't be licensed to operate a 3-tonne death machine in residential areas.

What if the child doesn't know what a give way sign means? Or doesn't know what to do in a round about, or likes to run red lights to show off to their friends. Kids do dumb things sometimes and the road is a dangerous place to be.

So let's make the road safer instead of banning children. Also, parents aren't completely irresponsible and will teach their kids how to cycle before letting them run loose.

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

#443

Post by tlamponi »

mulmen wrote: post #431
tlamponi wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They aren't limited to conventional biking speed. Partially repeating my comment from another sub-thread here: In Europe, the speed at which an ebike motor may assist one is limited to 25 km/h (~ 15.5 mph): > pedal cycles with pedal assistance which are equipped with an auxiliary electric motor having > a maximum continuous rated power of less than or equal to 250 W, where the output of the motor > is cut off when…

Yes, legally they are limited. Here in the real world people are riding electric mopeds at nearly 30mph on bike paths anyway. Happens all the time. There are pedestrians walking in the bike path too. Someone is going to get hurt.

And people also ride motorbikes in bike lanes, even cars sometimes - so what's your point? Legal ebikes won't make this more dangerous, and people doing illegal stuff are always more likely to not care and endanger people.

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

#444

Post by HanaShiratori »

gorgoiler wrote: post #344

A major problem with electric pushbikes is that they are fast . A few days ago I was pulling out of a side road. I was turning to go into town such that I had to first cross a lane of traffic going out of town. I checked the crossing lane — nothing except for a guy in work clothes, no helmet, on a push bike. I checked the other direction and it was clear. I looked back towards town and got ready to start moving and……

I don't necessarily think speed is an issue with e bikes, since the assistance stops at a certain speed. I commute by (non electrical) bike to work every day and can reach the same speed as e bike commuters - my acceleration is just slower and it takes more work to get there (especially on windy days)

You see regular bikes going on very high speed as well, so I wouldn't say the general speed assumption has to change

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

#445

Post by lmm »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #376
lmm wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's ass-backwards. If you can't drive safely around children then you shouldn't be licensed to operate a 3-tonne death machine in residential areas.

What if the child doesn't know what a give way sign means? Or doesn't know what to do in a round about, or likes to run red lights to show off to their friends. Kids do dumb things sometimes and the road is a dangerous place to be.

> What if the child doesn't know what a give way sign means? Or doesn't know what to do in a round about, or likes to run red lights to show off to their friends.

Then you'd better be driving slowly and paying attention if you want to operate a heavy vehicle around where kids are.

> the road is a dangerous place to be

Roads are fine; motor vehicles being driven at speed make places dangerous.

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

#446

Post by desas »

BackBlast wrote: post #353
danny_codes wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There is no significant tax pool coming from cyclists to build or maintain said infrastructure. I don't blame them for trying to salvage/use something from what exists, I've been there. I found the behavior of ignoring established traffic law as if it were optional to be dangerous and selfish.

> There is no significant tax pool coming from cyclists to build or maintain said infrastructure.

Don't they pay income tax? I think I read that most of the cost of roads in the USA is raised from income tax and sales tax.

> I found the behavior of ignoring established traffic law as if it were optional to be dangerous and selfish.

A lot of car drivers are out there too running lights, breaking speed limits and driving under the influence. People are the problem, not their transport.

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

#447

Post by newby »

tlamponi wrote: post #416
gorgoiler wrote: post #344

A major problem with electric pushbikes is that they are fast . A few days ago I was pulling out of a side road. I was turning to go into town such that I had to first cross a lane of traffic going out of town. I checked the crossing lane — nothing except for a guy in work clothes, no helmet, on a push bike. I checked the other direction and it was clear. I looked back towards town and got ready to start moving and……

In Europe, the speed at which an ebike motor may assist one is limited to 25 km/h (~ 15.5 mph): > pedal cycles with pedal assistance which are equipped with an auxiliary electric motor having > a maximum continuous rated power of less than or equal to 250 W, where the output of the motor > is cut off when the cyclist stops pedalling and is otherwise progressively reduced and finally > cut off before the vehicle speed…

It is way too easy to remove that limitation. At least in the Czech Republic where I live it is common and it is one of the reasons I have love-hate relationship with e-bikes. I love the idea of e-bikes replacing cars to commute but they are also causing some kind of eternal September in biking. Suddenly there are multitudes of e-bikers without technical skills passing you dangerously fast on trails that were previously accessible only to trained (and therefore experienced) bikers. It spoils the fun when you are going up the hill 15 km/h and suddenly someone passes 2cm next to your elbow at 40 km/h.

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

#448

Post by pharmakom »

chrisseaton wrote: post #309
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…

> Housing within bicycle commuting distance (under 5 miles) in many cities is abundant Housing isn’t abundant within 50 miles of London and other similar major cities, let alone 5.

Consider that a comparable amount of space is dedicated to car parking as parks in London.

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

#449

Post by watwut »

snovv_crash wrote: post #423
mulmen wrote: post #246

I like that e-bikes are getting more people on two-wheeled transportation. I dislike that people are effectively riding motorcycles on dedicated bike paths. I especially dislike that companies get to profit from cluttering public spaces with bicycle and scooter litter. My hope is that long-term we get the e-bikes into the street where they belong and combine that with traffic calming measures to make scooter commutin…

> I especially dislike that companies get to profit from cluttering public spaces with bicycle and scooter litter. Then you must hate on-street parking and parking lots. I think the speed and power limits of ebikes are actually pretty reasonable. A fit cyclist can go faster on the flats, and I don't just mean a pro, anybody young and healthy who cycles a few times a week should be able to manage it. Bikes should have…

Parking lots are dedicated for that purpose. And in here, if you park the car on the sidewalk, you get ticket. Shared e-scooters are regularly parked in the middle of the sidewalk, making it impossible to go around with stroller.

But to those companies credit, they do have at least token process of punishing bad parking.

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

#450

Post by Drunk_Engineer »

wmil wrote: post #278
_se wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5 miles is a very easy bike commute, not sure what you're talking about. It's about 20 minutes each way.

Google maps estimates it about 35 minutes, so almost twice as long as you're thinking.

YMMV. Google map estimates for cycling are very inaccurate in my experience.
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