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Whatever the effect, it's at least getting better. As someone who rides a bike to work every day on urban roads that are usually congested, the recent rise of h
by pkulak 7y ago
Whatever the effect, it's at least getting better. As someone who rides a bike to work every day on urban roads that are usually congested, the recent rise of hybrids, and even just cars with auto start-stop systems, has been a blessing. It used to be that driving next to a line of stopped cars was a nightmare, but now at least half of them have their engines off, if they have an engine at all.
Moving an automobile a couple miles in a dense urban environment at very slow speeds shouldn't require much energy, at least from a pure physics standpoint.
- klyrs 7y ago> Moving an automobile a couple miles in a dense urban environment at very slow speeds shouldn't require much energy, at least from a pure physics standpoint. If the terrain is flat, I agree. In hilly cities, not so much.
- pkulak 7y agoWell, if you end up were you start, hills don't matter to physics.
- klyrs 7y agoIf your "physics" don't include drag, rolling resistance, or conversion losses, I'm forced to agree. However, regenerative braking (like any other energy conversion process) is not lossless, and it turns out that low-speed, high torque acceleration is where they're least efficient [1]: required torque increases with the incline you're trying to accelerate up. And if you're staying at low speed, you'll be stuck in this low-efficiency regime, and you won't recoup much going back downhill. [1] http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2016/ph240/brown1/ http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2016/ph240/brown1/