5 ms·

Not quite 99F (which is like 37C) but Singapore is VERY humid compared year round (as opposed to 4 months) of ~90 F (32 C). On many days I've seen "feels like 3

Not quite 99F (which is like 37C) but Singapore is VERY humid compared year round (as opposed to 4 months) of ~90 F (32 C). On many days I've seen "feels like 39 C" on google weather. Despite all that, car ownership is 12 per 100 people. People rely heavily on public transit, which is air conditioned (AC seems to be their sin, but it's definitely more efficient than AC in every car on top of burning gas to get it to move around). I think as you allow as a possibility in the end of your reply, it's not like it can't work, but non-ebikes and scooters might become a bit much for some people unless there's copious cover.

jdnenej 7y ago
Riding an ebike in 39c is uncomfortable but not unthinkable. I do it semi regularly. If your trip is >10km it's not that bad at all. You will probably have to shower when you get home but it's still better than owning a car.
- avar 7y ago
  Being on a modern E-Bike in 39C is definitely way more comfortable than walking. You can adjust the power settings so you barely have to touch the pedals to move, it's less effort than walking, and you'll be traveling at up to 25 km/h so you'll get some air cooling you wouldn't get if you were just walking. I've ridden mine in up to 35C and it's like stepping into an oasis compared to standing still in that temperature, more so if you wear clothing like loose fitting cotton clothing that benefits from the increased airflow.
  - fiter 7y ago
    In my experience this would be air heating and not air cooling because the air temperature is higher than the skin temperature, unless you're already sweating and being evaporatively cooled from that.
  - learc83 7y ago
    >so you'll get some air cooling you wouldn't get if you were just walking. 39C is well above skin temperature so you're only going to get evaporative cooling and the effectiveness of that depends on humidity. It's possible the heating effect of the hot air blowing over your skin overwhelms the evaporative cooling and you are actually getting net warming. Even if the humidity is low if you're not already drenched in sweet, it's going to feel awful.
- coldtea 7y ago
  >Riding an ebike in 39c is uncomfortable but not unthinkable. Exactly. Before 1950s 90% of the people walked, rode bikes, horses, etc in all of these places, everyday, everywhere. Billions still do all over the world in similar climates. It's not like we need cushions, air conditioning, and so on, to go from one place to another in the summer heat.
  - rayiner 7y ago
    > Billions still do all over the world in similar climates. Yes. And it sucks. There is a reason the founder of Singapore said it “made development possible in the tropics.” We don’t “need” indoor toilets either. But they’re pretty great. So are cars. Big SUVs with the AC turned down to 65.
    - refurb 7y ago
      Exactly. There are a lot of things we can do without - refrigerators in every home, laundry in every home, AC, etc. But they make life way better and very few people are willing to go without.
    - coldtea 7y ago
      >We don’t “need” indoor toilets either. But they’re pretty great. So are cars. Big SUVs with the AC turned down to 65. Even more so a livable planet, and we're running out of that just so some cushioned entitled people can have "big SUVs with the AC turned down to 65", 24/7 burgers, and other BS...
    - jdnenej 7y ago
      It doesn't suck. It's just a temporary discomfort. I feel like the discomfort is actually somewhat beneficial. When I get home after cycling on a really hot day I immediately take a shower and then feel great about how comfortable my home is. Better than if I had taken an air-conditioned car/bus back. I think maybe we have too much confort all of the time and it makes it harder to appreciate than if we get to experience discomfort some times.
      - 7y ago
- noobermin 7y ago
  Can't edit my comment now, but that's what I meant. Normal bikes in 39C is something I might do with a tank top or something, e-bikes seem neccessary there. I also implied scooters = bad but I take that back, scooters and e-bikes seem good, it is manually driven transit in 39C seems like it would be sufficiently uncomfortable.
gambiting 7y ago
Just wanted to say thank you for using Celsius in addition to Fahrenheit. I don't understand why people only use Fahrenheit without adding the equivalent Celsius value.
- capableweb 7y ago
  People that use Fahrenheit as a measurement by default tend to be people belonging to countries where they typically don't consider the rest of the world outside of their own borders. Celsius on the other hand, is used by most of the world.
  - zarkov99 7y ago
    Or maybe they assume that an American tech web site, populated by mostly American residents of one shape or another will be comfortable with F.
    - capableweb 7y ago
      > populated by mostly American residents I'm very interested to see if this is true. Seems like the US (take it you mean US, not all of Americas?) is about 4% of the world population, so my guess would be that there is more non-US residents on HN than US residents. (but I don't actually have any insights into it)
      - zarkov99 7y ago
        By US residents I mean people who live in the US culture. I would guess, but like you I have no insights into it, given the topics we discuss here and the ancestry of the site, that most of the people here are either Americans or spend most of their time in America. In other words, people on this site are likely pretty comfortable with the Imperial system.
        capableweb 7y ago
        > By US residents I mean people who live in the US culture Usually resident refers to people having their domicile somewhere, not just being influenced by something like culture. I think many countries around the world follow US culture, but that does not mean they automatically know imperial system.

jdnenej 7y ago

Riding an ebike in 39c is uncomfortable but not unthinkable. I do it semi regularly. If your trip is >10km it's not that bad at all. You will probably have to shower when you get home but it's still better than owning a car.

avar 7y ago
Being on a modern E-Bike in 39C is definitely way more comfortable than walking. You can adjust the power settings so you barely have to touch the pedals to move, it's less effort than walking, and you'll be traveling at up to 25 km/h so you'll get some air cooling you wouldn't get if you were just walking. I've ridden mine in up to 35C and it's like stepping into an oasis compared to standing still in that temperature, more so if you wear clothing like loose fitting cotton clothing that benefits from the increased airflow.
- fiter 7y ago
  In my experience this would be air heating and not air cooling because the air temperature is higher than the skin temperature, unless you're already sweating and being evaporatively cooled from that.
- learc83 7y ago
  >so you'll get some air cooling you wouldn't get if you were just walking. 39C is well above skin temperature so you're only going to get evaporative cooling and the effectiveness of that depends on humidity. It's possible the heating effect of the hot air blowing over your skin overwhelms the evaporative cooling and you are actually getting net warming. Even if the humidity is low if you're not already drenched in sweet, it's going to feel awful.
coldtea 7y ago
>Riding an ebike in 39c is uncomfortable but not unthinkable. Exactly. Before 1950s 90% of the people walked, rode bikes, horses, etc in all of these places, everyday, everywhere. Billions still do all over the world in similar climates. It's not like we need cushions, air conditioning, and so on, to go from one place to another in the summer heat.
- rayiner 7y ago
  > Billions still do all over the world in similar climates. Yes. And it sucks. There is a reason the founder of Singapore said it “made development possible in the tropics.” We don’t “need” indoor toilets either. But they’re pretty great. So are cars. Big SUVs with the AC turned down to 65.
  - refurb 7y ago
    Exactly. There are a lot of things we can do without - refrigerators in every home, laundry in every home, AC, etc. But they make life way better and very few people are willing to go without.
  - coldtea 7y ago
    >We don’t “need” indoor toilets either. But they’re pretty great. So are cars. Big SUVs with the AC turned down to 65. Even more so a livable planet, and we're running out of that just so some cushioned entitled people can have "big SUVs with the AC turned down to 65", 24/7 burgers, and other BS...
  - jdnenej 7y ago
    It doesn't suck. It's just a temporary discomfort. I feel like the discomfort is actually somewhat beneficial. When I get home after cycling on a really hot day I immediately take a shower and then feel great about how comfortable my home is. Better than if I had taken an air-conditioned car/bus back. I think maybe we have too much confort all of the time and it makes it harder to appreciate than if we get to experience discomfort some times.
    - 7y ago
noobermin 7y ago
Can't edit my comment now, but that's what I meant. Normal bikes in 39C is something I might do with a tank top or something, e-bikes seem neccessary there. I also implied scooters = bad but I take that back, scooters and e-bikes seem good, it is manually driven transit in 39C seems like it would be sufficiently uncomfortable.

gambiting 7y ago

Just wanted to say thank you for using Celsius in addition to Fahrenheit. I don't understand why people only use Fahrenheit without adding the equivalent Celsius value.

capableweb 7y ago
People that use Fahrenheit as a measurement by default tend to be people belonging to countries where they typically don't consider the rest of the world outside of their own borders. Celsius on the other hand, is used by most of the world.
- zarkov99 7y ago
  Or maybe they assume that an American tech web site, populated by mostly American residents of one shape or another will be comfortable with F.
  - capableweb 7y ago
    > populated by mostly American residents I'm very interested to see if this is true. Seems like the US (take it you mean US, not all of Americas?) is about 4% of the world population, so my guess would be that there is more non-US residents on HN than US residents. (but I don't actually have any insights into it)
    - zarkov99 7y ago
      By US residents I mean people who live in the US culture. I would guess, but like you I have no insights into it, given the topics we discuss here and the ancestry of the site, that most of the people here are either Americans or spend most of their time in America. In other words, people on this site are likely pretty comfortable with the Imperial system.
      - capableweb 7y ago
        > By US residents I mean people who live in the US culture Usually resident refers to people having their domicile somewhere, not just being influenced by something like culture. I think many countries around the world follow US culture, but that does not mean they automatically know imperial system.