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I'd love an e-bike but 1. I couldn't afford one without selling my car and 2. I'd only get the use out of it on a few mile commute. Once it's the weekend I've 3 kids to run around to clubs and such
In our family we have two e-bikes - one smaller one larger, also many normal bikes, no more car.
They are especially useful to get up the steep hills to the side of our valley, and also to pull shopping or dog in a trailer - up to 50kilos ok.
Both e-bikes fold so they can easily go on the train.
Both e-bikes were bought directly from china online, as we are not rich.
The smaller one is slower but manageable by low-teen-kids too.
The larger one will go about 80km, pedalling, with small hills.
We find e-bikes don't make us lazy, rather they encourage us to make more trips, and pedal faster - still get fit.
So the european law that enforces pedalling rather than cruising is good, however the low european limit on e-bike power is unfortunate, maybe designed by people in flat countries, you need more power for hills or heavy loads.
We'd like two more to enable family trips, but those are too rare to justify the cost, and also no e-bike can last a whole day - for that we'd need solar panels on a trailer - project for later ...
[p.s. note - overlap with !solarpunktravel@slrpnk.net ]
Sorry but the e-bike can't go on the highway. No dice.
Here's the thing: it substitutes for a lot of trips of a several miles or less. That's enough for a lot of people to replace much of their driving.
In the U.S. most places outside of urban centers are pretty inhospitable for bikes. Even if I did have the range to replace most of my trips (I don't), I wouldn't feel safe doing so. That aspect gets a brief nod in the article but it doesn't even begin to cover situations like winter weather, or any adverse weather in general. This is the same nonsense over and over, placing the impetus for change on the individual where systematic change is required instead.
it doesn't even begin to cover situations like winter weather, or any adverse weather in general
Like we say in the Netherlands: you aren’t made of sugar, are you?
Winter is something you deal with by switching to metal-studded tires and dressing appropriately. For men, that often means stuffing a wind-blocking layer between your underpants and pants to keep your genitals from getting cold.
Yes, it helps to have the systematic change...but that doesn't happen until at least some people start riding and agitating for it.
This is the same nonsense over and over, placing the impetus for change on the individual where systematic change is required instead.
Ain't nobody gonna pay to build bike stuff if nobody rides. Quit whining and show up so we can make the systematic changes necessary.
I was more thinking about light rail
I'll take it
I understand the reluctance from people in the US. Much of the cost of car ownership happens no matter how much you drive, so switching to an ebike for some trips may not save money for a very long time if you have to keep the car. Also, riding a bike (even a class 4 ebike) in many places can be really scary. I live in Denver, and there are parts of the city that I wouldn't go with an ebike, and Denver is one of the better cities in the US for biking infrastructure.
If you can get to a point where you can rely on rentals and ride share for your car needs, getting an ebike makes sense. Otherwise, it's going to be a hard sell for a lot of people.
Most people live in some form of family/marriage situation (they may not be legally family/married, but they have lived with the same person/people for years and plan to continue that). Such situations can generally get rid of one car for a bike, sharing the other car(s) for the trips that they cannot bike for. It is more work to share a car instead of each person having a car. I know a lot of two driver families that have 3 cars just because if one car breaks they want a backup, they can get rid of the backup if they would bike for more.
Most already have a bike (not ebike, but a regular bike is good enough), it just doesn't occur to them they could ride it for errands instead of just trail rides on a nice saturday.
I totally agree. If you can replace a car with a bike or ebike, that's going to be financially worth it. Then the only questions become about safety and infrastructure.