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Good question... a trip to a crowded Chinese city would probably change your mind. They're a good _supplement_ to public transportation, not a replacement. They
by exabrial 4y ago
Good question... a trip to a crowded Chinese city would probably change your mind. They're a good _supplement_ to public transportation, not a replacement. They can clog infrastructure, can be abandoned, parked in mass illegally, and have disposal lifecycle problems of their own. E-bikes themselves depend on toxic mining too right now which is a problem people gleefully ignore, and not to mention the energy cost of producing steel is net-negative at the moment.
My preference would be trackless trollies and streetcars (5-10m intervals), followed by subway (15m intervals) and mid-distance electrified trains (30m-4hr intervals), supplemented with bikes.
I'm still hopeful for fuel-cell cars and aviation in the next 20years, as that represents the ultimate connivence for the USA, as the vast majority of the USA it's _hours_ drive between major cities.