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The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

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Re: The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

#351

Post by jeffbee »

Gordonjcp wrote: post #338
jeffbee wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The visual acuity of a 70-year-old is roughly on par with a 20-year-old wearing dark sunglasses at night.

That's not actually true. Although it's bizarre because in the US 70-year-olds seem incredibly frail compared to 70-year-olds anywhere else.

It is true. At night a 70-year-old person is basically blind. They can't cope with oncoming headlights because their pupils take seriously minutes to make adjustments that a young eye can make in seconds. Old pupils don't open as wide as young pupils. Old eyes have only half the rod receptors a young eye has. These effects are already noticeable to people at age 50.

The elderly can only drive safely under ideal conditions: sun high, not on the horizon, not at night, in clear weather where nobody is using their headlights.

Re: The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

#352

Post by zimpenfish »

jeffbee wrote: post #351
Gordonjcp wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not actually true. Although it's bizarre because in the US 70-year-olds seem incredibly frail compared to 70-year-olds anywhere else.

It is true. At night a 70-year-old person is basically blind. They can't cope with oncoming headlights because their pupils take seriously minutes to make adjustments that a young eye can make in seconds. Old pupils don't open as wide as young pupils. Old eyes have only half the rod receptors a young eye has. These effects are already noticeable to people at age 50. The elderly can only drive safely under ideal condi…

> They can't cope with oncoming headlights [at night]

One of the reasons I stopped driving 20 years ago (~30) was because I have this problem. Made night driving much more stressful.

Re: The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

#353

Post by emptysongglass »

moonchrome wrote: post #297
mnkv wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The victims are cyclists because so many dutch people cycle! (Because the infrastructure is so good) Per Capita, cycling in the Netherlands is far far safer than cycling in the US.

Yes but far more unsafe than using a car ! > “The Dutch data for last year (2019) shows that in absolute figures more people died in car crashes (237) than on a bicycle (203). If you calculate the figure per kilometre travelled that is reversed. Per one billion kilometres travelled the figure for cycling is 11 while the figure for car occupants is 1.6 fatalities.” Why do I have to google these self-evident facts ? No…

Cars are far more likely to kill people, and quite a few at once. In fact it is almost certain death if a pedestrian is hit by a speeding car. And if that speeding car collides with another vehicle, there's death abundant.

You're being told repeatedly by Europeans your take isn't right but you keep digging in and entrenching. Why is that? Have you considered you might actually be wrong?

The unsafest I've ever been was commuting between Brooklyn and Manhattan for two years as a cyclist: the number of near misses and actual side swipes (yes from cars) would shock you.

Re: The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

#354

Post by dghlsakjg »

warcher wrote: post #279
emptysongglass wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll be another voice to say you're speaking from a myopic perspective. The Dutch bike through rain, sleet or snow without any difficulty. Modern electric cargo bikes like their favorite, Urban Arrow, are fantastically balanced and need only a trained rider to handle through a wide variety of inclement weather.

Yeah I dunno where they're going with this. You can ski in the snow perfectly comfortably if properly attired, but you can't bike? In fairness icy streets can get extremely dicey on two wheels-- no arguments there. The US in particular has a lot more extreme weather than Holland. You'll have extended periods where biking on icy concrete is not a great option.

Icy streets are extremely dicey on 4 wheels as well, except that cars tend to externalize the risk.

I.e. a bike slipping and falling tends to hurt the risk taker. A car slipping and crashing tends to protect the occupant at the expense of whatever gets crashed into.

Re: The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

#355

Post by dghlsakjg »

moonchrome wrote: post #297
mnkv wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The victims are cyclists because so many dutch people cycle! (Because the infrastructure is so good) Per Capita, cycling in the Netherlands is far far safer than cycling in the US.

Yes but far more unsafe than using a car ! > “The Dutch data for last year (2019) shows that in absolute figures more people died in car crashes (237) than on a bicycle (203). If you calculate the figure per kilometre travelled that is reversed. Per one billion kilometres travelled the figure for cycling is 11 while the figure for car occupants is 1.6 fatalities.” Why do I have to google these self-evident facts ? No…

Cause of death counts as well. If I get hit by a car on my bike it is a counted as a cycling injury even though it was a fatal accident because a car was involved.

Re: The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

#356

Post by yafbum »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #257
yafbum wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you do about shoes in rain?

You can buy rain covers for your shoes, or just do whatever it is you do when you walk outside in the rain.

Ok good tip. Just to clarify. When I drive garage to garage, as many people do, I don't walk in the rain. When I do walk in the rain, I carry an umbrella, and that doesn't work on a bike

Re: The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

#357

Post by Gordonjcp »

jeffbee wrote: post #351
Gordonjcp wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not actually true. Although it's bizarre because in the US 70-year-olds seem incredibly frail compared to 70-year-olds anywhere else.

It is true. At night a 70-year-old person is basically blind. They can't cope with oncoming headlights because their pupils take seriously minutes to make adjustments that a young eye can make in seconds. Old pupils don't open as wide as young pupils. Old eyes have only half the rod receptors a young eye has. These effects are already noticeable to people at age 50. The elderly can only drive safely under ideal condi…

That'll be why it's all people half my age (I'm about 50) who are terrified of driving at night because they can't see properly, and I (and people my age) can read the number the guy in the car in front is calling on his phone, then.

Re: The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

#358

Post by JodieBenitez »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #316
Beltalowda wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Waterproof bags probably exist, but I can't say I've seen them available, or used, by anyone at all. What? Almost all non-cheap backpacks are water-proof. Water-proof packs are around everywhere .

I honestly never owned one in my life, nor I believe I ever seen one. Note that by "waterproof" I mean something I could stuff a laptop into and have it survive half an hour of heavy rain in it. Not something that will resist a small drizzle for few minutes before its inside surfaces start to get wet.

Where I live a pair of detachable waterproof (yes, you can literally take a 1 hour shower with them) bike bags is about 30$.

Re: The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

#359

Post by troysk »

upofadown wrote: post #201
troysk wrote: post #120

These cars are carbon positive in most cities as they increase pollution. These slow moving vehicles are slowing down traffic behind them. I see similar vehicles in and around my city in India and they end up clogging the lanes. As most of us are on ICE vehicles, we end up spending more time driving and increasing pollution.

What is the speed limit in your city? Most gas cars are most efficient at something like 60 kmh. This thing goes 45 kmh. So not that much difference for efficiency[1]. After all, we are talking about a vehicle that is only 20-30% efficient to start with. [1] https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Speed-fuel-consumption-c...

Upto 100kmph is fine I guess but traffic hardly allows it. That 45kmph is without any load I would assume. Once you add load and real world fiction the slows to 25/30kmph.

Re: The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

#360

Post by asdff »

Tade0 wrote: post #346
asdff wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only issue is you still end up with all the issues cars have, especially the inefficiency of having people in a dense urban areas get around by standing in line 20 feet apart from eachother, which is what private vehicular traffic basically is, and of course the need for having some place to store the golf cart wherever you go on the other end. At least with bikes you can compress the peleton quite a bit at a lig…

Why 20 feet? Golf carts are much shorter/narrower than that: https://jsgolfcarts.com/blog/golf-cart-dimensions/ You could comfortably fit three of them on two lanes, and believe me people will do it. Italians generally drive smaller cars than other Europeans and that's what happens there on intersections. Actually, considering the dimensions, a fully packed four-seater has a smaller footprint than the equivalent bicy…

I say 20 feet to factor in some sensible margin between vehicles. I'm also not measuring bumper to bumper, but driver to driver.
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