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The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

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

#261
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see these around the city: https://www.estrima.com/en/models/biro-winter/ approximately 360kg, so def not as light as a bike, but not incredibly heavy either. 100km range.

Something like this, but regulated as a bike for the US would be great for me! I'm legally blind so I can't drive a full size vehicle—I'll likely get an ebike soon so I can have greater mobility than walking or bus allows. However, I live in a rainy area so having something covered and which I could use to transport my daughter would be ideal. I've found one vendor in the area that sells an ebike, but they lack a lot…

Something like this pulling a bike trailer for your daughter is very close: https://www.motrike.com/product-item/city-commuting-recumben...

EDIT: this is even closer: https://www.better.bike/models

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

#262
post #169
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're in a weird situation now where I think most people riding e-bikes are doing so illegally on trails and paths. It's not being enforced yet where I live and I fear the push-back when someone inevitably gets hurt.

My city had issues after the escooter craze started. They outlawed them on side walks and started giving a lot of tickets to people who kept doing it. Not sure if it worked or the craze died down.

I assume more the latter.

Even in the places I'm familiar with which still allow escooter rentals, my observation is you don't really see very many of them--either being ridden or littering the sidewalks. It does seem to be one of those things that, while you still see them, appear to have mostly been a fad. At least in the cities I'm familiar with.

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

#263
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…

As long as they're speed-limited to conventional biking speed I don't think this is much of a problem. E-bikes have similar mass to normal bikes so the forces are basically the same.

They aren't limited to conventional biking speed. The rental bikes are close but they're still significantly faster than any human-powered vehicle on the bike path.

A buddy of mine bought a Super73 which has speed limiting modes but operates purely on the honor system. In the "unlimited" mode it can do 28mph, without pedaling. In the "limited" mode it can still do 20, which is faster than most people are capable of for any extended period of time without a power assist.

A Super 73 weighs 73lbs. That's double a regular bike. Moving at 2-4x the speed. Sure the rider is more than that but e-bike numbers are a lot closer to mopeds than bicycles.

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

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most bikers only use the sidewalk when the road infrastructure as-is isn’t safe enough for bikers. And I fully agree that there are a lot of bad bikers, but a bad biker is a nuisance to a driver while a bad driver is a potential fatality to a biker.

> Most bikers only use the sidewalk when the road infrastructure as-is isn’t safe enough for bikers. You have to see how this is a completely selfish position right? The road is dangerous for cyclists so cyclists make the sidewalk dangerous for pedestrians. Sure there's a difference in degree but that's not a justification. > And I fully agree that there are a lot of bad bikers, but a bad biker is a nuisance to a dri…

> You have to see how this is a completely selfish position right?

> The road is dangerous for cyclists so cyclists make the sidewalk dangerous for pedestrians. Sure there's a difference in degree but that's not a justification.

Have you ever tried biking on a 45/50mph road? The chance of you not being hit at the end of the day is not high. I'm not sure where else would one bike when there's such a large speed difference.

And in some US cities there really are no alternative roads with lower speeds limits to bike on.

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

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s super unfortunate that it still gets the stereotype as a “rich white people” activity when it’s really so much more financially accessible than a car. It's true that a bicycle is itself cheaper than a car, but housing within biking distance to job centers sure isn't. In my view this is the primary reason bicycle commuters are stereotypically rich folks. The bicycle itself isn't the expensive part; you need pro…

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…

5 miles is quite a distance for a bike commute. I've done about this distance for a while and I won't go back to doing it.

Interestingly, the average distance the Dutch ride is about 1.2 miles per day:

https://www.peopleforbikes.org/news/best-kept-secret-dutch-b...

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

#266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mixed-use paths are an extremely bad idea and dangerous for everybody. I actively avoid them as a pedestrian and as a cyclist. They should all disappear. If ebikes help to accelerate the inevitable dismissal of these stupid mixed-use lanes, so good! A bike-friendly infrastructure is based on three separate networks, for pedestrians, cycles and cars. Each of the three networks must be continuous, reasonably complete a…

Not sure why you're downvoted on this. I used to live near a very popular mixed-use bike trail, and walking with my kids there was really unpleasant. There were some cyclists who would go really fast and not slow down at all, and I had little kids who might see a butterfly and move unpredictably. It was bad for everyone.

I agree with this. I definitely think there are some kinds of pedestrian traffic that probably shouldn't use a high traffic mixed trail. Situational awareness and understanding how to stay on your 'side' of the trial is pretty important.

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

#267
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More specifically, you have and electric motorcycle with no traction, no safety features and an untrained rider.

It is trivial to get a motorcycle license in America. An order of magnitude more training should be required for cars and motorcycles before I would consider people trained.

It depends heavily on the state you live in I believe. It's also somewhat irrelevant to my point: if you're going to be on the road with a vehicle that has similar capabilities to a motorbike, you should at least know what the other drivers have been taught, if nothing else.

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

#268
Not a criticism of e-bikes, but I discovered an unexpected danger related to e-bikes which was much less an issue with traditional bikes: when driving a car, it's now much more difficult to judge how much time you need to pass a bike. I would say without hyperbole that it's much more dangerous now, to the cars and the bikes.

I currently live in a Dutch village, so bikes and cars share rather narrow roads. The roads are narrow enough that two cars barely fit side by side. Normally when you're approaching a bike from behind, you know you only need 2-3 seconds to pass it. If there's oncoming traffic, you can easily judge if you have time to safely pass the bike, or if instead you should slow down and wait behind it.

But now that bike which would normally be moving 10-15kph may actually be an e-bike doing 24-ish kph. That's quite a big difference. And if you're doing 50-70 as you approach, it's _very_ difficult to identify from a distance if that bike is going 12 or 24. It matters too, because it might take twice as long to pass as you would normally expect.

Of course we can adapt and take the safe approach, always slowing to the bike speed before deciding to pass. But not only is that rather aggravating to go from 70 to 15 and then accelerate to pass, but it's wasteful on brakes and fuel. Also, if there's any oncoming traffic further down the road, you're much more likely to now be stuck behind that bike for an agonizingly long time.

For the cyclist, they will now be more at risk of a passing car misjudging and pulling back into the lane, cutting the bike off.

Tangentially related is the (new for cars) Tesla problem. That's when you're merging or needing to pass someone, and that someone is driving a Tesla and has a bad attitude. Historically it was pretty easy to judge if you had enough speed to pass someone; but now if that someone is driving a Tesla (or other new, performance oriented electric), they can decide to not allow you to pass by simply stepping on the throttle. They can so quickly accelerate that they can fill that spot which was safely available. If you're not paying close attention (being prepared for something like that), or if you have nowhere else to go (merging, lane ending), you're at great risk of accident.

So in summary, electric vehicles are dangerous! I jest, but they do indeed present some new challenges that don't make them more welcome on the roads.

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

#269

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…

5 miles is quite a distance for a bike commute. I've done about this distance for a while and I won't go back to doing it. Interestingly, the average distance the Dutch ride is about 1.2 miles per day: https://www.peopleforbikes.org/news/best-kept-secret-dutch-b...

A 5 mile commute on an eBike is trivial.

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

#270

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…

5 miles is quite a distance for a bike commute. I've done about this distance for a while and I won't go back to doing it. Interestingly, the average distance the Dutch ride is about 1.2 miles per day: https://www.peopleforbikes.org/news/best-kept-secret-dutch-b...

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