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The presence of e-bikes popularizes biking infrastructure in cities. Cycling infra suffers from a catch 22: if there isn't any, people won't purchase bikes and
by scrollaway 5y ago
The presence of e-bikes popularizes biking infrastructure in cities.
Cycling infra suffers from a catch 22: if there isn't any, people won't purchase bikes and thus won't bike. If people don't bike, cycling infrastructure isn't in demand.
Shared e-bikes lower the barrier of entry to cycling and thus people push their cities to invest in cycling infrastructure. Which increases cycling as a whole.
E-scooters are horrible but i suspect they have a similar positive effect long term.
Course correction on decades of car dependency may require over-correction in certain cities. E-scooters are likely that.
Here in Brussels, the sudden popularity of e-scooters caused a few e-bike startups to appear and get funding. The e-scooter boom faded but e-bikes gained as a result, and demand for cycling infrastructure is way up. Now the city is seriously pedestrianizing everything, which would not have happened had there not been these low barrier of entry alternatives (public transportation is very mediocre).
- taurath 5y ago> The presence of e-bikes popularizes biking infrastructure in cities I don’t know if I believe this - places that were increasing bike infrastructure were already doing so before ebikes became a thing. Any evidence of ebikes in particular changing or accelerating plans? I suppose it could be different for places with already “good” infrastructure vs places which already have poor or nonexistent infrastructure.
- scrollaway 5y agoI just edited an example of my current city. The thing is, cycling infrastructure in a world of no shared bikes and scooters is something only "useful" (at first glance) to those who put in an initial investment of hundreds of euros/dollars... Often more, because it's hard to find cheap bikes in a city with poor cycling infrastructure, because there's less of a second hand / casual market. In words startup founders may relate to, cycling heavily suffers from the bootstrapping problem. Shared vehicles ease that greatly.