I’d bet an electric bike would work well in most cities, especially ones that you can reference and people recognize.
I think the market that it misses most is the people who live outside of cities/towns, and have to travel that initial 10+ miles just to get into the city. Still feasible, but less so
And winters.
I live in one of these out west cities. I’d take an electric bike over my car in a heartbeat for most of the spring/summer/fall. To bad a decent electric bike is extremely expensive.
We sold our car and committed around Tacoma for about 6 months before we moved to the Netherlands. It was awful in a ton of ways, but for a lot of trips it was way better. The majority of trips are under a mile, so dropping the kids off at preschool and stuff was way better on a bike. It’s actually quite a bit faster since kids love to get on the bike instead of the long fight against the car seat.
We also did a few shopping trips. You can’t really do much more than 3 bags on a long tail bike with two kids in the back, but it worked well enough for shopping trips. People look at you like you’re crazy in the US when you’ve got things strapped all over your bike, but here it’s just completely normal. We probably would ride year round there if it wasn’t for how dangerous cars are when it rains. I have no problem biking in the wind and the rain here because I know I’m not going to be randomly murdered by some idiot in a multiton metal box.
I’m not familiar with Boise, but I’d bet that an eBike would still be better for a lot of trips.
I’m going to wager this comment was posted and upvoted by people who have never been to Boise. Because that place has a good amount of people biking around. Especially around Boise state and for recreation.
Any American city is going to look like shit compared to Europes biking capitals.
Compare a super blue “bike friendly” city like San Francisco to Amsterdam. It’s not even a fair contest. SF is a fucking cycling death trap in comparison to Amsterdam.
Sure. I’m just saying that there are a lot of opposition in many US cities to building green and more progressive infrastructure that doesn’t specifically benefit cars. Especially in red states.
True, but often times stuff like this boils down to the city planning and city budget, not the state. And a lot of major metro areas are pretty blue, even in red states.
Oftentimes the biggest barrier is that the bones of US city planning was done with cars in mind, and trying to accommodate bikes afterwards is difficult. Which is why US cities that want bikes struggle with supporting them.
Many old European city layouts were baked before cars were a thing.
these are feasible in cities that you wouldn’t want to drive a car in anyways. probably not so good for commuting around Boise Idaho
Boise is a college down that is VERY bike friendly. Nearly 200miles of bike lanes and trails.
I’ve never actually been there I don’t know anything about it
I’d bet an electric bike would work well in most cities, especially ones that you can reference and people recognize.
I think the market that it misses most is the people who live outside of cities/towns, and have to travel that initial 10+ miles just to get into the city. Still feasible, but less so
And winters.
I live in one of these out west cities. I’d take an electric bike over my car in a heartbeat for most of the spring/summer/fall. To bad a decent electric bike is extremely expensive.
Not compared to owning/maintaining a car.
If you are still required to own and maintain that car even with the ownership of the bike, then yes, it is.
Very good point here actually
Say it to delivery workers in Moscow. No, say it to Finns.
I’m curious what you mean about this? Do you think Finns and Russians are delivering packages/food/whatever during bad winter weather on Ebikes?
Given winter being almost constant weather condition in Finland I assume they don’t stop delivering because they are on another side of melting point.
And about Russians yes. I see food delivery workers using ebikes entire year in any weather.
Do you live close to the equator? Cause that shits uniformed.
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I’d say decent ones are down to about $1000 these days.
My ebike cost around €1500 and I’d say it’s decent…
Oh yeah, a decent ebike in the mountains costs around 2-3k. Probably not that bad for settled people.
But sadly, that’s as expensive as my car. Hopefully this college thing pays off though
We sold our car and committed around Tacoma for about 6 months before we moved to the Netherlands. It was awful in a ton of ways, but for a lot of trips it was way better. The majority of trips are under a mile, so dropping the kids off at preschool and stuff was way better on a bike. It’s actually quite a bit faster since kids love to get on the bike instead of the long fight against the car seat.
We also did a few shopping trips. You can’t really do much more than 3 bags on a long tail bike with two kids in the back, but it worked well enough for shopping trips. People look at you like you’re crazy in the US when you’ve got things strapped all over your bike, but here it’s just completely normal. We probably would ride year round there if it wasn’t for how dangerous cars are when it rains. I have no problem biking in the wind and the rain here because I know I’m not going to be randomly murdered by some idiot in a multiton metal box.
I’m not familiar with Boise, but I’d bet that an eBike would still be better for a lot of trips.
Wichita, KS
I’d drive one to work.
wouldn’t you get wacked by savages
Not on the way to work. It’d be after I showed up.
Because Boise, ID is not interested in building the necessary infrastructure for ideological reasons.
I’m going to wager this comment was posted and upvoted by people who have never been to Boise. Because that place has a good amount of people biking around. Especially around Boise state and for recreation.
Been to Boise many time. Take a trip to Europe and then come back and tell me what you think of Boise’s bike infrastructure.
Any American city is going to look like shit compared to Europes biking capitals.
Compare a super blue “bike friendly” city like San Francisco to Amsterdam. It’s not even a fair contest. SF is a fucking cycling death trap in comparison to Amsterdam.
Sure. I’m just saying that there are a lot of opposition in many US cities to building green and more progressive infrastructure that doesn’t specifically benefit cars. Especially in red states.
True, but often times stuff like this boils down to the city planning and city budget, not the state. And a lot of major metro areas are pretty blue, even in red states.
Oftentimes the biggest barrier is that the bones of US city planning was done with cars in mind, and trying to accommodate bikes afterwards is difficult. Which is why US cities that want bikes struggle with supporting them.
Many old European city layouts were baked before cars were a thing.
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