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Decent piece. Always glad to see people thinking about infra... IMO refactoring American public spaces will be a key part of remaining relevant on the world sta

Decent piece. Always glad to see people thinking about infra... IMO refactoring American public spaces will be a key part of remaining relevant on the world stage. I personally hope ebikes come to fill a space between cars and bikes. My dream ebike does 35mph+ for 40mi+ with 50-100w of human input and has some cargo capacity and probably an extra seat. My household has a car (prius-c) and a converted van for longer trips / cargo moving. For me, this would allow me to ditch my car which is primarily used in the city. Though a bike like this would be pretty competent on surface streets mixing with automotive traffic, I would still probably need _some_ infrastructure to make it work well. Secured ground-level storage & parking near stores and points of interest, and streets with appropriate speed limits (<45mph). The climate where I live is mild costal, but I believe this is possible even in more extreme continental climates with spikes, etc. Clothing tech has made staying dry & warm not too hard. I have looked at the Twike but it's just an impractical device. Way too expensive & trying too hard to be a car. Some corrections: - Freewheels don't preclude regen - You'll always need brakes - Some folks need better than 15-20mph ;-)

TomK32 5y ago
45mph is stillu a speed limit I wouldn't want to cycle on on a regular basis. You're right about infrastructure, decent cycle paths is what people need to ride bicycles in the city, the are just too afraid of the heavy car traffic. 15-20mph for a bicycle is plenty of speed, as a matter of fact, bikes with motor support above 25kmh (15.5mph) here in Europe it would be a S-Pedelec and need a license plates and other stuff just like a motor scooter. You wouldn't want to ride at 35mph, it's a scary speed even on a good road bike that's meant to be ridden faster. Regarding winter: Start cycling in summer, cycling is fall and just upgrade your clothes as you go along. I cycle 20km on a work day, no matter how bad, cold or hot the weather is. It's just about getting used to it.
- frankus 5y ago
  At this point they're talking about an e-motorcycle that sort of incidentally has an emergency backup pedal drivetrain. Which is fine—most of the energy efficiency advantages of a bike come from being light and (relatively) slow, not from being human-powered, and their small size helps with lane and parking space. But at that point you need real safety gear, and definitely shouldn't be sharing infrastructure (at least at those kinds of speeds) with human-powered bikes. (edit: this is more in reply to the comment the preceding comment replied to. I regret the error)
  - closeparen 5y ago
    That sort of begs the question of the purpose of cycling infrastructure. If it is to support the sport and hobby of cycling, then presumably it should be exclusive to human powered bikes. If it is to help people conduct their lives without relying (so much) on cars, then in the face of such an exclusivity requirement, reserving it for ebikes only would make more sense.
denton-scratch 5y ago
> My dream ebike does 35mph A human body travelling at 35mph is likely to suffer serious damage if it collides with the road surface. I hit the road going at about 15mph, and suffered concussion, a fractured jaw and the loss of two teeth. I needed 15 stitches in my lip. At twice the speed, it would have been much worse. Motorcycles go much faster; but everyone knows motorcycles are dangerous, so motorcyclists wear leathers, gauntlets and a helmet. And they still get injured a lot.
ben-schaaf 5y ago
An in-between for cars and bikes with fair range, medium speed and some cargo has existed for a long time in the form of mopeds.

TomK32 5y ago

45mph is stillu a speed limit I wouldn't want to cycle on on a regular basis. You're right about infrastructure, decent cycle paths is what people need to ride bicycles in the city, the are just too afraid of the heavy car traffic. 15-20mph for a bicycle is plenty of speed, as a matter of fact, bikes with motor support above 25kmh (15.5mph) here in Europe it would be a S-Pedelec and need a license plates and other stuff just like a motor scooter. You wouldn't want to ride at 35mph, it's a scary speed even on a good road bike that's meant to be ridden faster. Regarding winter: Start cycling in summer, cycling is fall and just upgrade your clothes as you go along. I cycle 20km on a work day, no matter how bad, cold or hot the weather is. It's just about getting used to it.

frankus 5y ago
At this point they're talking about an e-motorcycle that sort of incidentally has an emergency backup pedal drivetrain. Which is fine—most of the energy efficiency advantages of a bike come from being light and (relatively) slow, not from being human-powered, and their small size helps with lane and parking space. But at that point you need real safety gear, and definitely shouldn't be sharing infrastructure (at least at those kinds of speeds) with human-powered bikes. (edit: this is more in reply to the comment the preceding comment replied to. I regret the error)
- closeparen 5y ago
  That sort of begs the question of the purpose of cycling infrastructure. If it is to support the sport and hobby of cycling, then presumably it should be exclusive to human powered bikes. If it is to help people conduct their lives without relying (so much) on cars, then in the face of such an exclusivity requirement, reserving it for ebikes only would make more sense.

denton-scratch 5y ago

> My dream ebike does 35mph A human body travelling at 35mph is likely to suffer serious damage if it collides with the road surface. I hit the road going at about 15mph, and suffered concussion, a fractured jaw and the loss of two teeth. I needed 15 stitches in my lip. At twice the speed, it would have been much worse. Motorcycles go much faster; but everyone knows motorcycles are dangerous, so motorcyclists wear leathers, gauntlets and a helmet. And they still get injured a lot.

ben-schaaf 5y ago

An in-between for cars and bikes with fair range, medium speed and some cargo has existed for a long time in the form of mopeds.