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bicycles are not the solution ... The solution, as this article touches on, is light weight electric transport using the existing road structure. To me this so

by stinos 7y ago

bicycles are not the solution ... The solution, as this article touches on, is light weight electric transport using the existing road structure. To me this sounds pretty funny: you make it sound like an electric bicycle is not a bicycle, whereas to me it's still a bicycle, just with the addition of a motor. Even a speedpedelec is normally still considered a bicycle here: after all it doesn't move unless you pedal, unlike a moped for instance. Electrics will soon start to invade Small city in Belgium here with historically a lot of cyclists: this has happened already despite infrastructire not being sufficient :) Even a cheap electric bike already feels much safer in urban car traffic than a pedal bike because it has super fast acceleration from a dead stop Hmm, having used more than one cheap and not-so cheap and expensive electric ones, that is not my experience at all and for more than one reason: it only works really well (i.e. better than a non-electric bicycle) if your bicycle is in the highest power mode and in a low enough gear. Even then, it takes some experience to be able to use that fast acceleration safely. Seriously, I see people struggle everyday with starting from dead stop just because they're still in the wrong gear or fail to put their foot on the pedal in time etc. Or they succeed and then they get suprised by the acceleration and can't keep the bike straight. Just ask people in the hospitals: amount of injuries is up since electric bicycles happened.

sunstone 7y ago
To me there's a big difference, in terms of urban transport, between a pedal bike and an e-bike, mostly because of the acceleration capability of the e-bike, which is even better than fossil fuel engines. My feeling is that initially the 'e' revolution will start with e-bikes but ultimately will end up with electric mopeds (no fiddly gears) and electric tricycles (two wheels at the front) with seat belts and modest roll cages.
- stinos 7y ago
  To me there's a big difference, in terms of urban transport, between a pedal bike and an e-bike Sure, the difference can be substantial depending on model, but my point here was that I interpreted your comment as the latter not being a bicycle anymore.
  - sunstone 7y ago
    Yes that's right. To me an e-bike behaves much more like a small motorcycle than it is like a much lighter pedal bicycle.

by stinos 7y ago

sunstone 7y ago

To me there's a big difference, in terms of urban transport, between a pedal bike and an e-bike, mostly because of the acceleration capability of the e-bike, which is even better than fossil fuel engines. My feeling is that initially the 'e' revolution will start with e-bikes but ultimately will end up with electric mopeds (no fiddly gears) and electric tricycles (two wheels at the front) with seat belts and modest roll cages.

stinos 7y ago
To me there's a big difference, in terms of urban transport, between a pedal bike and an e-bike Sure, the difference can be substantial depending on model, but my point here was that I interpreted your comment as the latter not being a bicycle anymore.
- sunstone 7y ago
  Yes that's right. To me an e-bike behaves much more like a small motorcycle than it is like a much lighter pedal bicycle.