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For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower

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Re: For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower

#111

Post by defrost »

brokenmachine wrote: post #110
Gigachad wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing is being done because it’s not an actual issue. No one is dying from being hit by delivery bikes. They are just annoying. Meanwhile elderly drivers regularly have incidents that kill entire families and we shrug and say nothing can be done.

From my very first google: "In the five-year period from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2020, there were 14 deaths reported to an Australian State or Territory Coroner where an electric e-micromobility device, including e-bike, e-scooter and electronic self-balancing device, contributed to the death" "Seven of the 14 deaths were related to e-bikes); 7 deaths were in Queensland and 5 in Victoria (by jurisdiction of inv…

There's some serious road use education and rule adjustment called for; it's a perfect storm of young riders, on and off roadways and footpaths, speed, horsepower, and mixed traffic (cars, pedestrians, eVehicles with relatively high speeds).

Re: For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower

#112

Post by alienthrowaway »

rob74 wrote: post #59

So, a 50 year old former "business manager in a government role" is now working as a delivery worker in Colombia, and the fact that the company gave him a loan for an e-bike (they didn't even provide it to him!) is listed as a "reason to be cheerful"?! I swear this is the most depressing thing I read this week so far, and that's something if you consider how depressing the news has been recently...

"There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in." - Desmond Tutu

Society is not ready for the conversation because more often that not, inquisitive people who dare go upstream find out that capitalism - directly or indirectly - is pushing into the river, and have to walk back down to while hanging their head, and continue pulling those they can out of the river.

Re: For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower

#113

Post by umeshunni »

alienthrowaway wrote: post #112
rob74 wrote: post #59

So, a 50 year old former "business manager in a government role" is now working as a delivery worker in Colombia, and the fact that the company gave him a loan for an e-bike (they didn't even provide it to him!) is listed as a "reason to be cheerful"?! I swear this is the most depressing thing I read this week so far, and that's something if you consider how depressing the news has been recently...

"There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in." - Desmond Tutu Society is not ready for the conversation because more often that not, inquisitive people who dare go upstream find out that capitalism - directly or indirectly - is pushing into the river, and have to walk back down to while hanging their head, and continue pull…

Yes I'm sure it's the capitalism in Venezuela that pushed these people into taking these jobs in Columbia.

Re: For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower

#114

Post by alienthrowaway »

umeshunni wrote: post #113
alienthrowaway wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in." - Desmond Tutu Society is not ready for the conversation because more often that not, inquisitive people who dare go upstream find out that capitalism - directly or indirectly - is pushing into the river, and have to walk back down to while hanging their head, and continue pull…

Yes I'm sure it's the capitalism in Venezuela that pushed these people into taking these jobs in Columbia.

I think you can do better than that in charitably reading what I said in the context of a hagiography whose centerpiece is a loan to a 50 year-old immigrant for an e-bike.

Re: For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower

#115

Post by DanielHB »

avgDev wrote: post #72
dfxm12 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds like one of those stories in the US about a community crowdsourcing a ton of money for a little girl to get some life saving surgery that would be covered by socialized health care in almost any other country in the planet. These stories are cheerful for capital.

To be fair, stories like this occur in countries with socialized healthcare. People often do come to the US for niche specialized healthcare that is cutting edge. US healthcare is great for the wealthy and those who can afford it. It isn't great for everyone and in general ranks average or poor in some cases.

I have been through the healthcare systems of Brazil (private) and Sweden (public). I can say that private healthcare is only strictly better if you pay out of pocket, not through insurance.

Public healthcare is FAR more efficient though, I am always amazed how _fast_ doing exams in Sweden are. Like my doctor asked me to take an MRI, put it in the system, scheduled an appointment within a week for me automatically and I was in and out of an MRI clinic in 20 minutes (and I was attended to exactly on time of my appointment) all of that just using my ID card. Bloodwork is usually drop-in so I can just go directly from the doctor without an appointment.

In Brazil with private healthcare I would have to find the MRI clinic myself and see which one was covered by my insurance and try to get an appointment within a reasonable time (by calling multiple clinics). And when getting there I would probably have to wait at least an hour to actually get the MRI done. That is if insurance didn't contest the need for it in the first place. And god forbid I forget to bring the insurance paperwork with me.

Oh yeah, in Brazil I also need to personally go pickup the MRI and personally bring it to the doctor and do another visitation, while in Sweden it is all digital and the doctor just called me on the phone to tell me the results.

My father took ~4 months to schedule a life-saving cancer surgery, insurance kept contesting the surgery. My partners mother in Sweden had cancer surgery approved and done in less than 10 days.

Yes the care in Sweden is usually worse than in Brazil private. I wouldn't say it is so much about doctor quality, more about doctors feeling a bit rushed to see patients. But it is so much faster and easier. Usually you need fast care, not personalized care. And of course a lot of things are just not covered in the Swedish public system (for example some skincare problems) that could be covered in some private in Brazil.

The only thing better about the Brazilian clinics was that some of them had marble floor on the lobby while the Sweden ones usually had concrete floors or tiles.

Overall I prefer the Swedish system much better than the private Brazilian system.

Re: For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower

#116

Post by DanielHB »

1-more wrote: post #89
avgDev wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, stories like this occur in countries with socialized healthcare. People often do come to the US for niche specialized healthcare that is cutting edge. US healthcare is great for the wealthy and those who can afford it. It isn't great for everyone and in general ranks average or poor in some cases.

When someone criticizes US healthcare, they are almost always using "healthcare" to mean "the care that everyone receives on average" and not "the healthcare received by those with good insurance." Private jets fly from around the world to The Cleveland Clinic and The Mayo Clinic every day, but that's not what's at issue for most people.

In Brazil the top private hospitals were full of people speaking in Spanish and English. Private care is only better if you pay out of pocket though, most people with private insurance in Brazil don't get to go to those hospitals.

Re: For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower

#117

Post by DanielHB »

miunau wrote: post #101
thrownaway2323 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So, a 50 year old former "business manager in a government role" is now working as a delivery worker in Colombia, and the fact that the company gave him a loan for an e-bike Millions of venezuelan migrants are in a similar situation. It is not uncommon to see former university professors with PHDs, lawyers, engineers with decades of experience, etc. to find themselves in another country working as Uber drivers and o…

This goes for European countries as well. Even well-educated people, from whatever country locals deem undesirable at that moment, in general do not get the chance to work in jobs that suit their education. Sometimes these people have benefited from taxpayer funded education in that host country, but the prevalent racist attitudes exclude them from even getting job interviews. E.g. Finland is losing lots of immigrant…

This tends to be a much lesser problem once the person's original country is in the EU, but yeah if you are coming from outside the EU it can be super tricky. Even professions that is desperate need like nursing and doctors can be hard because of the recertifications required.

Re: For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower

#118

Post by DanielHB »

sepositus wrote: post #70
rob74 wrote: post #59

So, a 50 year old former "business manager in a government role" is now working as a delivery worker in Colombia, and the fact that the company gave him a loan for an e-bike (they didn't even provide it to him!) is listed as a "reason to be cheerful"?! I swear this is the most depressing thing I read this week so far, and that's something if you consider how depressing the news has been recently...

From my reading, the article is about how e-bikes are proving to be economically viable and how that benefits the environment. Even more positive is that they are becoming available locally in a way that is accessible to a delivery driver on a fixed low income. Those things seem like something to be pretty optimistic about.

I never owned a car, I commute to work in an e-bike and most other places I go to. It is usually faster than car (if you account parking) or public transport.

Since I got an e-bike I haven't bought a single month public-transport cards, I maybe take the metro/bus 4-10 times per month (depends a lot on the weather). The bike paid itself several times over since I got it around 2019.

Me and my partner manage to save a lot of money per month, even though we just bought a new, very expensive (because it is close to downtown) apartment with a huge mortgage by just living close to place we go to, not having a car and using the e-bike.

Re: For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower

#119

Post by DanielHB »

numpad0 wrote: post #53
luma wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you deliver packages in a tropical climate? If the answer is no, maybe you have a different use case than the people in the article. Being able to make it through the day might carry more significance for these users than being able to tear the thing down without any electrical knowledge. HN in a nutshell - you see an article full of first-hand reports of the users and their use case and your immediate reaction is…

Hot and humid is the worst for any machines. Which tropical climate is. It's also lowkey why Toyota ended up being ~the most reliable brand of cars.

I can tell you for a fact that snow and salted streets is far, far worse for an e-bike (I assume cars/trucks too, but maybe not since the gears are more isolated from the street?). However these places are like that only for 2-4 months of the year.

Compound that to e-bikes batteries usually (always?) don't have heating systems to keep them at >0 C, at least you can take them out of the bike when not in use though.

Worse is there are some cities that have both, humid summers and salted streets in winter.

Re: For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower

#120

Post by devilbunny »

numpad0 wrote: post #53
luma wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you deliver packages in a tropical climate? If the answer is no, maybe you have a different use case than the people in the article. Being able to make it through the day might carry more significance for these users than being able to tear the thing down without any electrical knowledge. HN in a nutshell - you see an article full of first-hand reports of the users and their use case and your immediate reaction is…

Hot and humid is the worst for any machines. Which tropical climate is. It's also lowkey why Toyota ended up being ~the most reliable brand of cars.

You're right about hot and humid, but Bogota (which is where the story is set) is not hot. Highest temperature ever recorded was 30 Celsius and usual highs all year are about 20 C. Average altitude is 2600 m/8600 ft.

It is humid, but that doesn't seem to translate into especially heavy rain - total precip is less than 900 mm/yr, or somewhere between Minneapolis and Chicago.

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