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>I've often wondered what would happen if bicycles were invented today. Surely cities would ban them immediately for being unsafe ("exposed chains and gears? wh
by aphextron 8y ago
>I've often wondered what would happen if bicycles were invented today. Surely cities would ban them immediately for being unsafe ("exposed chains and gears? what if a child put their finger in there?!") and they would completely fail to gain traction, right?
It just comes down to power. Bicycles are fundamentally different because they are human powered. A powerful adult cyclist can produce maybe 500 watts at a full sprint for a few minutes. Compare this to an electric scooter which gives even a small child nearly 1 kilowatt of power, making it quite easy to hurt themselves or others. It's just a different level of responsibility, like the difference between firearms and archery.
- woolvalley 8y agoThe city / journo complaints about them don't really seem to be about the electric part of the scooters & bikes, but the dockless nature of them.
- maccam94 8y agoDockless bike shares in China have had similar problems as scooters in SF. This isn't about scooters vs bikes. It's about clogging public spaces with private property, and how a sudden influx of new vehicle operators need to be trained to not constantly violate traffic laws (like riding on the sidewalk). https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/03/bike-share-oversupply-in-china-huge-piles-of-abandoned-and-broken-bicycles/556268/ https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/03/bike-share-oversup...