High quality eBikes are pretty amazing: I have nearly 4000 miles on one of ours, and nearly all of those are replacing car trips around town, including most of our grocery shopping.
While not revolutionary - they're kind of an incremental improvement - I'm pretty impressed by all the things a cheap Chromebook can do.
Last year I purchased an e-scooter (Hiboy X300)to compliment my car. I used it so much, I accidentally let my car rot into disrepair. The e-scooter is great, but it is quite limited in what you can carry (only what you can put in a backpack). Instead of getting another car for the things that I can't really use the scooter for, I got an acoustic, belt driven bike :) (the Priority 600). I went acoustic and belt driven specifically to compliment the shortcomings of the e-scooter (other than the carrying capacity, which any bike is an improvement on), in that I don't have to worry about it failing in any weather that I throw at it, rain, snow or shine. There is no battery to get too cold and no electrical system to get too wet.
Had I known I were going to be getting rid of my car, an e-bike would have definitely been a better value. I feel lucky that things worked out the way that they did though - having both an e-scooter and an acoustic bike has been great!
My eBike comes with a big basket and a bag that slots into it that can carry a ton of stuff. I do most of our family's grocery shopping with it. A huge upgrade from a backpack.
Do you hate e-bikes, or do you hate city planning that treats e-bikes as second-class citizens, and forces them into direct competition with cars and pedestrians?
The biggest problem I've seen with bicycles is that SOME bicyclists act like they are a car when it suits them and a pedestrian when it suits them, even when infrastructure is properly in place.
Is it though? I've cycled in a number of US cities, and even in the ones that have bike lanes, most only have small sections that are physically-divided from traffic, and pretty much none have intersections that bikes can safely cross without using the pedestrian crosswalks.
Joking aside, I can see the annoyance, and it's important to have separate infrastructure where people feel safe to ride their bikes. That does not mean a 2 inch strip of white pain separating you from dudes in trucks staring at their phones at 40 miles an hour.
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High quality eBikes are pretty amazing: I have nearly 4000 miles on one of ours, and nearly all of those are replacing car trips around town, including most of our grocery shopping.
While not revolutionary - they're kind of an incremental improvement - I'm pretty impressed by all the things a cheap Chromebook can do.
Last year I purchased an e-scooter (Hiboy X300)to compliment my car. I used it so much, I accidentally let my car rot into disrepair. The e-scooter is great, but it is quite limited in what you can carry (only what you can put in a backpack). Instead of getting another car for the things that I can't really use the scooter for, I got an acoustic, belt driven bike :) (the Priority 600). I went acoustic and belt driven specifically to compliment the shortcomings of the e-scooter (other than the carrying capacity, which any bike is an improvement on), in that I don't have to worry about it failing in any weather that I throw at it, rain, snow or shine. There is no battery to get too cold and no electrical system to get too wet.
Had I known I were going to be getting rid of my car, an e-bike would have definitely been a better value. I feel lucky that things worked out the way that they did though - having both an e-scooter and an acoustic bike has been great!
My eBike comes with a big basket and a bag that slots into it that can carry a ton of stuff. I do most of our family's grocery shopping with it. A huge upgrade from a backpack.
eBikes may be pretty amazing in isolation, but as a pedestrian, I absolutely hate people who ride eBikes.
Do you hate e-bikes, or do you hate city planning that treats e-bikes as second-class citizens, and forces them into direct competition with cars and pedestrians?
The biggest problem I've seen with bicycles is that SOME bicyclists act like they are a car when it suits them and a pedestrian when it suits them, even when infrastructure is properly in place.
Is it though? I've cycled in a number of US cities, and even in the ones that have bike lanes, most only have small sections that are physically-divided from traffic, and pretty much none have intersections that bikes can safely cross without using the pedestrian crosswalks.
https://bsky.app/profile/jwbee.bsky.social/post/3mtc2rx7hcc2...
Joking aside, I can see the annoyance, and it's important to have separate infrastructure where people feel safe to ride their bikes. That does not mean a 2 inch strip of white pain separating you from dudes in trucks staring at their phones at 40 miles an hour.
We went from hipsters with tattoos on fixies to this guy