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E-bikes may be the greenest form of transportation in human history
- JohnFen 7y agoE-bikes are certainly not "the greenest form of transportation in human history". They use batteries, motors, electricity, and etc., after all. I'm not sure what the greenest would be, but certainly walking or biking is greener than any motorized transport.
- java-man 7y agomay be not, if one accounts for all the food and methane emissions. ;-) if the electricity is supplied by solar power, it might be closest to the "greenest" form of transportation.
- JohnFen 7y agoYou have to take into account the impact of manufacturing the things, too. The paper that elicash linked to in his comment is well worth a read, as it attempts to consider the entire environmental impact of the transportation methods broadly, including manufacture.
- elicash 7y agoI'd recommend reading the article. It cites this study: https://files.meetup.com/1468133/LCAwhitepaper.pdf https://files.meetup.com/1468133/LCAwhitepaper.pdf One can take issue with the study, but this comment doesn't seem to even grapple with it.
- JohnFen 7y agoNice! I did read the editorial, by the way. I just missed that link. According to that, e-bikes aren't the greenest form of transportation. Walking, biking, and e-bikes came in at the same level of "greenness". Although the paper itself points out that it's very likely overestimating the impact of bicycles, because the lifespan it assumes for them is too low.