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This is a wrong and harmful point of view. - electric cargo bikes can replace cars for a lot of use cases (bringing children to school, etc) - when you need t

This is a wrong and harmful point of view. - electric cargo bikes can replace cars for a lot of use cases (bringing children to school, etc) - when you need to transport heavy load like furniture, you can rent a car or a van - trains and/or car rental for longer trips - bikes for short distances with lighter loads I know a few people (low to medium incomes) in rural areas that are doing this and they are not activists or anything.

msrenee 4y ago
So, where I'm at, there's at least 2 months a year where it would be miserably hot to ride a bike for any distance. At least 3 weeks this summer, it's been dangerously hot. We get about 1.5 months total of days at or below freezing. Another 1.5 where you'd really have to bundle up. Then add in days when it's snowing or icy. Then add in days when it's pouring rain. It would probably be possible to get away with a bike around here if you lived near everything you needed and really planned things out as far as getting places early in the summer and having an emergency plan if something happened and you were stuck somewhere in the freezing cold. At least you have some time in a vehicle cab before the temperature drops dangerously low. There's definitely places where an ebike can replace a car. There's a lot of places where it would really limit your ability to get anywhere outside of walking distance.
- blackoil 4y ago
  dangerously hot on an ebike!! I live in an extremely hot place, it may be mightily inconvenient, or gross reaching all sweated to office, but not dangerous.
- snovv_crash 4y ago
  Riding bikes in winter is normal in Scandinavia. If its too cold, you're wearing the wrong clothes. Too hot, well, people are riding bikes in India. I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one. Too far? That's an urban design problem. Nobody is suggesting rural people change their cars for bikes, although I do know some people who are loving their ebikes for property inspection...
  - Tade0 4y ago
    > Too far? That's an urban design problem. It's also a scale problem. Inhabitants of dense, large cities like Paris or New York are famously considered generally rude, and I don't suppose there's anything special about those places other than density that would cause this. Also real estate in dense cities is disproportionately more expensive.
    - dpatterbee 4y ago
      I too do not like bicycles because people in Paris are rude.
    - rtlfe 4y ago
      > New York are famously considered generally rude Unclear why people believe this, but it's absolutely not true. Spend a day watching people walk to work in Manhattan vs people sitting still on the freeway in LA and it's clear who's happier and friendly. Road rage is real, and cars make people miserable.
      - dragonwriter 4y ago
        > Spend a day watching people walk to work in Manhattan vs people sitting still on the freeway in LA and it's clear who's happier and friendly. Road rage is real, and cars make people miserable. Even taking your claim as true, you’ve confused unhappiness with rudeness in placing it here, without that conflation it's a non-sequitur.
    - rtlfe 4y ago
      > Also real estate in dense cities is disproportionately more expensive. That's not a law of nature. It's a result of deliberate choices made by city governments to restrict the supply of housing over the last few decades. Also the fact that it's so expensive and people keep moving there shows that it's an attractive way to live.
      - Tade0 4y ago
        > That's not a law of nature. It's a result of deliberate choices made by city governments to restrict the supply of housing over the last few decades Is it even possible to build new housing when the population density is already at 20k people per square kilometre, like in the cities mentioned? > Also the fact that it's so expensive and people keep moving there shows that it's an attractive way to live. Did you consider that not everyone has a choice in the matter and the alternative is often unemployment? There's a trend towards urbanization because people move to where the jobs are. That alone doesn't make any place more livable.
ntp85 4y ago
This is exactly what we (my family and me) do. We don't currently own a car and don't plan on buying one but instead use our Babboe Big-E as mentioned. If we - on some rare occasion - require a car/van I can rent one rather cheaply from the local car sharing initiative, called StattAuto.
robertlagrant 4y ago
It's not harmful. Points of view are not harmful. And this is a bit of a theme: anywhere close to a school - even close enough to cycle - costs more to live in. It's fine if you have a good job and can cycle the kids to school and then cycle back and work from home, or you've got enough money to buy somewhere near work and school (because you were fortunate enough to work and live on the same side of the same city) but this will not be the case for huge numbers of people. Huge numbers of people don't have that luxury.

msrenee 4y ago

So, where I'm at, there's at least 2 months a year where it would be miserably hot to ride a bike for any distance. At least 3 weeks this summer, it's been dangerously hot. We get about 1.5 months total of days at or below freezing. Another 1.5 where you'd really have to bundle up. Then add in days when it's snowing or icy. Then add in days when it's pouring rain. It would probably be possible to get away with a bike around here if you lived near everything you needed and really planned things out as far as getting places early in the summer and having an emergency plan if something happened and you were stuck somewhere in the freezing cold. At least you have some time in a vehicle cab before the temperature drops dangerously low. There's definitely places where an ebike can replace a car. There's a lot of places where it would really limit your ability to get anywhere outside of walking distance.

blackoil 4y ago
dangerously hot on an ebike!! I live in an extremely hot place, it may be mightily inconvenient, or gross reaching all sweated to office, but not dangerous.
snovv_crash 4y ago
Riding bikes in winter is normal in Scandinavia. If its too cold, you're wearing the wrong clothes. Too hot, well, people are riding bikes in India. I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one. Too far? That's an urban design problem. Nobody is suggesting rural people change their cars for bikes, although I do know some people who are loving their ebikes for property inspection...
- Tade0 4y ago
  > Too far? That's an urban design problem. It's also a scale problem. Inhabitants of dense, large cities like Paris or New York are famously considered generally rude, and I don't suppose there's anything special about those places other than density that would cause this. Also real estate in dense cities is disproportionately more expensive.
  - dpatterbee 4y ago
    I too do not like bicycles because people in Paris are rude.
  - rtlfe 4y ago
    > New York are famously considered generally rude Unclear why people believe this, but it's absolutely not true. Spend a day watching people walk to work in Manhattan vs people sitting still on the freeway in LA and it's clear who's happier and friendly. Road rage is real, and cars make people miserable.
    - dragonwriter 4y ago
      > Spend a day watching people walk to work in Manhattan vs people sitting still on the freeway in LA and it's clear who's happier and friendly. Road rage is real, and cars make people miserable. Even taking your claim as true, you’ve confused unhappiness with rudeness in placing it here, without that conflation it's a non-sequitur.
  - rtlfe 4y ago
    > Also real estate in dense cities is disproportionately more expensive. That's not a law of nature. It's a result of deliberate choices made by city governments to restrict the supply of housing over the last few decades. Also the fact that it's so expensive and people keep moving there shows that it's an attractive way to live.
    - Tade0 4y ago
      > That's not a law of nature. It's a result of deliberate choices made by city governments to restrict the supply of housing over the last few decades Is it even possible to build new housing when the population density is already at 20k people per square kilometre, like in the cities mentioned? > Also the fact that it's so expensive and people keep moving there shows that it's an attractive way to live. Did you consider that not everyone has a choice in the matter and the alternative is often unemployment? There's a trend towards urbanization because people move to where the jobs are. That alone doesn't make any place more livable.

ntp85 4y ago

This is exactly what we (my family and me) do. We don't currently own a car and don't plan on buying one but instead use our Babboe Big-E as mentioned. If we - on some rare occasion - require a car/van I can rent one rather cheaply from the local car sharing initiative, called StattAuto.

robertlagrant 4y ago

It's not harmful. Points of view are not harmful. And this is a bit of a theme: anywhere close to a school - even close enough to cycle - costs more to live in. It's fine if you have a good job and can cycle the kids to school and then cycle back and work from home, or you've got enough money to buy somewhere near work and school (because you were fortunate enough to work and live on the same side of the same city) but this will not be the case for huge numbers of people. Huge numbers of people don't have that luxury.