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280M e-bikes and mopeds are cutting demand for oil far more than electric cars

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Re: 280M e-bikes and mopeds are cutting demand for oil far more than electric cars

#211

Post by notatoad »

tfrutuoso wrote: post #172
camgunz wrote: post #83

I've said it before and I'll say it again: building the future around cars of any kind is completely unsustainable. We cannot reproduce the rates of rich world car ownership in the developing world without mass catastrophe (raw materials/labor needed for construction and maintenance, raw materials/labor/space needed for roads and parking lots, literal tons of waste--batteries, tires, steel, plastic, foam--, energy ne…

That's very elitist. Not everyone lives in large cities with whole mass transit systems or works the usual 9-5. Even in large urban areas it's tricky to get around past a certain time. I remember working unexpected shifts and later staring at closed metro stations, having to walk in the rain to get home. No thanks. Also, some people like cars. Deal with it, i'm not ditching for an e-bike or whatever. An electric moto…

nothing about living in a city or riding a bike instead of driving a car is "elitist".

elitism is using a vehicle that has an average annual ownership cost of $12000 and takes up a parking space everywhere you want to go.

Re: 280M e-bikes and mopeds are cutting demand for oil far more than electric cars

#213

Post by zzzeek »

estebank wrote: post #183
tfrutuoso wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's very elitist. Not everyone lives in large cities with whole mass transit systems or works the usual 9-5. Even in large urban areas it's tricky to get around past a certain time. I remember working unexpected shifts and later staring at closed metro stations, having to walk in the rain to get home. No thanks. Also, some people like cars. Deal with it, i'm not ditching for an e-bike or whatever. An electric moto…

You've identified a problem: public transport in some places sucks. But then veered away from the obvious solution: invest in it to make it not suck.

throwing money at urban problems does not necessarily have a great track record, and NYCTA has had lots of issues with corruption when they do have money to spend. Id be pretty skeptical that giving them a lot of money would mean you can hop on a train in 5 minutes at 2 am, it wouldnt even be cost effective to run that many trains at odd hours. Cars are terrific for this use case, however.

NYC cops have like a billion dollar budget and while they are great at protecting businesses in wealthy areas they are not very popular in lower income areas as they are both blase and overly brutal at the same time, their huge budget not having helped that aspect very much.

Re: 280M e-bikes and mopeds are cutting demand for oil far more than electric cars

#214

Post by bluescrn »

djaychela wrote: post #177
bluescrn wrote: post #80

Meanwhile, the UK government seem to be cracking down on them (lots of people are using bikes above the legal power limit), and seem absolutely determined never to legalise e-scooters.

As a cyclist, motorcyclist and driver, I have to say that the use of high powered ebike (surron, cake etc) on the road is pretty high where I live (Bournemouth), and I'm not keen on it. They are taken where normal bikes would go but tear up the ground like an MX bike would do, leaving damage that will take a year to grow back. They have replaced the MX bike as the illegal transport of choice for obvious reasons. They…

Ideally they'd make the S-Pedelec class of bikes (up to 28mph) much easier to own and operate legally.

The requirement for insurance and a helmet seems fine, but putting a full-size car number plate on an e-bike looks ludicrous (they need some sort of ID, but designed for bikes), and an annual MOT seems an unnecessary burden for what's still mostly a bicycle.

Re: 280M e-bikes and mopeds are cutting demand for oil far more than electric cars

#215

Post by tomtheelder »

cogman10 wrote: post #71
kragen wrote: post #32

if this is what passes for 'academic rigour, journalistic flair' > Their batteries make them heavier than a traditional car, and draw heavily on the extraction of rare earth elements i think your academy is a diploma mill quoting https://www.sneci.com/blog/are-rare-earths-an-issue-in-the-p... which actually does have something resembling academic rigor > 15 years ago, the first hybrid vehicles, notably the Toyota Pri…

Yup, lots of anti-battery stuff is propaganda pretending like we still drive around with NiCd batteries. Even the weight argument is wrong! A model Y weighs up to 4,555 lbs. A Ford edge weighs up to 4520 lbs. As it turns out, ICE are really super heavy. Strip that out and have a steadily increasing battery density as we've seen over the years and it really won't be long before EVs are in fact lighter than ICE counter…

The weight thing is absolutely real. You can’t just compare two completely different cars! Equivalent models usually gain a few hundred pounds in the EV version.

Re: 280M e-bikes and mopeds are cutting demand for oil far more than electric cars

#216

Post by dublinben »

julienreszka wrote: post #102

Have you seen the picture with the 2 children plus one adult on one bike? Make me really uncomfortable I immediately imagine how they risk to be crushed by a truck.

Sounds like we should get rid of trucks then.

Re: 280M e-bikes and mopeds are cutting demand for oil far more than electric cars

#218

Post by Axsuul »

BlueTemplar wrote: post #170
julienreszka wrote: post #102

Have you seen the picture with the 2 children plus one adult on one bike? Make me really uncomfortable I immediately imagine how they risk to be crushed by a truck.

Why would there be any more risk than if they were instead walking on the road ?

Bikes often have to ride on sharrows and share the road with fast moving cars. Pedestrians usually have a much better degree of separation.

Re: 280M e-bikes and mopeds are cutting demand for oil far more than electric cars

#219

Post by School-Cotton »

nicoburns wrote: post #196
jordanbeiber wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bike will get stolen anyway which is really annoying no matter the insurance. Not saying bike isn’t preferred to car, it’s just something I always consider. I’ve got a bike AND a car, I still take the car on certain trips where the bike would make more sense logistically because it feels like 50/50 it’ll get stolen.

Damn. If it's really 50/50 then that is bad!

It's not, OP was wildly exaggerating.

Re: 280M e-bikes and mopeds are cutting demand for oil far more than electric cars

#220

Post by t43562 »

I live near a couple of big supermarkets. I can ride to them easily but it's an uphill journey back and my last bike was stolen.

If I solve the stealing problem by adding some sort of bike shed and get an electric bike I'll be very happy to ride most of the time to do shopping.

The key issue is that I don't live miles from shops that have all the basics. I think if zoning laws allowed it then many trips could be satisfied by a bike.

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