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Denver’s e-bike subsidy program produced more new riders, fewer car trips

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21–30 of 170 posts

Re: Denver’s e-bike subsidy program produced more new riders, fewer car trips

#21
post #20
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My source is bankrate.com (top google search hit) which doesn't provide an exact line item breakdown. Here are some parameters they consider: - Average Insurance ~ $1,771 per year - Average Car Monthly Loan ~ $700 per month - Average repair costs ~ $1,425 - Depreciation of initial investment. (google search returns an average new car - cost to be ~$50,000 USD in 2022) - Gas - Registration

Wow, I didn't realize the average price for a new car was so high! Are people mostly buying electrics, full sized pickup trucks and luxury cars these days? Whatever happened to mid-sized and compact cars? Interestingly just looked and old frumpy minivans are right up there in price too!!

You need the Ultra Denali Tahoe CyberMegatron to ensure that you are unscathed when you evaporate whatever child has the gall to play in the street

Re: Denver’s e-bike subsidy program produced more new riders, fewer car trips

#23
post #4

When you factor in the reduced capital costs, carbon emissions, noise pollution, traffic, wear on infrastructure, health benefits, etc of electric bicycles the opportunity cost of car ownership over e-bike adoption is tremendous. The average cost of owning a car in 2022 is $10,728 per year: a figure which blows my mind.(edit: Source bankrate.com, the top hit on google) As a personal anecdote, my household has gone fr…

Am I well below the average? I spent $22k on a new car in 1999 that I stopped driving in 2022. I would guess I spent $15k on maintenance and repairs, but let's go on the high end and say $20k for that. That means it cost me an average of $42k / 23 = $1826 per year for that car, excluding fuel. In a year that I drove 10k miles, when the car's fuel economy was 24 MPG and the fuel cost $4 per gallon, the fuel would cost me 10k / 24 * $4 = $1667. That's $3493 per year. Why is the average so much higher?

Re: Denver’s e-bike subsidy program produced more new riders, fewer car trips

#24
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I didn't realize the average price for a new car was so high! Are people mostly buying electrics, full sized pickup trucks and luxury cars these days? Whatever happened to mid-sized and compact cars? Interestingly just looked and old frumpy minivans are right up there in price too!!

You need the Ultra Denali Tahoe CyberMegatron to ensure that you are unscathed when you evaporate whatever child has the gall to play in the street

[deleted]

Re: Denver’s e-bike subsidy program produced more new riders, fewer car trips

#25
post #3

Impressive results. Now the question is will they commit to a program with so few costs and so many benefits, or will they just forget it like most American cities forget their "pilot" programs?

Just looking at reducing CO2 emissions, 0.94 lb CO2e per dollar spent is a terrible return. That money applied to more efficient CO2 reduction options could return 100-1000x better.

CDOT spent $1.2 billion on 10 miles of I-70 widening. How much CO2 did that reduce per dollar? Oh, none?

Re: Denver’s e-bike subsidy program produced more new riders, fewer car trips

#26
post #4

When you factor in the reduced capital costs, carbon emissions, noise pollution, traffic, wear on infrastructure, health benefits, etc of electric bicycles the opportunity cost of car ownership over e-bike adoption is tremendous. The average cost of owning a car in 2022 is $10,728 per year: a figure which blows my mind.(edit: Source bankrate.com, the top hit on google) As a personal anecdote, my household has gone fr…

dont forget to factor in the number of people not hit by those missing cars

Re: Denver’s e-bike subsidy program produced more new riders, fewer car trips

#27

My problem with e-bikes is my problem with regular bikes. Riding on the sidewalk is generally not permitted and I don't trust drivers in cars to not murder me while driving in the street.

Sounds like a problem with cars, but also lack of facilities for cyclists. Places that care about cycling infrastructure often do things like provide cycle tracks that don't share space with cars.

Re: Denver’s e-bike subsidy program produced more new riders, fewer car trips

#28
post #4

When you factor in the reduced capital costs, carbon emissions, noise pollution, traffic, wear on infrastructure, health benefits, etc of electric bicycles the opportunity cost of car ownership over e-bike adoption is tremendous. The average cost of owning a car in 2022 is $10,728 per year: a figure which blows my mind.(edit: Source bankrate.com, the top hit on google) As a personal anecdote, my household has gone fr…

How is that yearly cost figure derived? I can't imagine it is repairs, gas, tolls, registration and maintenance alone.

There are a lot of people out there who drive 100 miles a day in a full sized pickup, lots of people with very high insurance prices due to accidents and the like, etc. A guy in the building I work at gets parking tickets at least once a week just out of his own laziness. I know multiple people who do no maintenance on their car until it breaks down completely and they get stuck with an expensive repair bill that could have been easily avoided and then they get a rental for the time it is in the shop. As far as I can tell a great deal of people just throw money at their cars and they are part of that average.

Re: Denver’s e-bike subsidy program produced more new riders, fewer car trips

#29
post #20
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My source is bankrate.com (top google search hit) which doesn't provide an exact line item breakdown. Here are some parameters they consider: - Average Insurance ~ $1,771 per year - Average Car Monthly Loan ~ $700 per month - Average repair costs ~ $1,425 - Depreciation of initial investment. (google search returns an average new car - cost to be ~$50,000 USD in 2022) - Gas - Registration

Wow, I didn't realize the average price for a new car was so high! Are people mostly buying electrics, full sized pickup trucks and luxury cars these days? Whatever happened to mid-sized and compact cars? Interestingly just looked and old frumpy minivans are right up there in price too!!

They went out of style as companies poured marketing into SUVs and trucks which have higher profit margins (I regularly see $70-90k pickup trucks used for office commutes!), all boosted by unusually low interest rates and 5+ year loans.

Then at the start of the pandemic, the car manufacturers slashed their orders for microprocessors in anticipation of a depression. The fabs sold their capacity to other customers which meant that when car demand didn’t crater as expected there was a massive shortage, and the car companies prioritized what chips they could get to the highest profit models.

Re: Denver’s e-bike subsidy program produced more new riders, fewer car trips

#30

E bikes are amazing for getting around. Did it for years before moving inner city and just walking. The major issue I had was the fear of theft as e-bikes are stolen regularly and cost a lot to replace.

The major issue is safety. Bikers are much more (3.4x to 11.5x) likely to be fatally injured per mile travelled compared to people driving cars [1]. Better bike infrastructure is needed.

[1] https://bicycleuniverse.com/bicycle-safety-almanac/

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