4 ms·

Interestingly the first article flagged ebikes as particularly problematic, which are a pretty common way to extend bike range. Although, they must surely be b

Interestingly the first article flagged ebikes as particularly problematic, which are a pretty common way to extend bike range. Although, they must surely be better than cars just due to mass. Anyway. Cautiously in agreement with you, but it depends a lot on where you live. Western Europe, at least at present, is blessed with a fairly mild climate. Less so than North America which seems to alternate between harsh winters and hot and humid summers. And it's a bit much to ask everyone to move somewhere nice. We probably need to figure out how to make braking systems and wheels less polluting. Quoted this Douglas Adams once on New York when this came up... "In the summer it's too darn hot. It's one thing to be the sort of life form that thrives on heat and finds, as the Frastrans do, that the temperature range between 40,000 and 40,004 is very equable, but it's quite another to be the sort of animal that has to wrap itself up in lots of other animals at one point in your planet's orbit, and then find, half an orbit later, that your skin's bubbling." [edit] (aside, my theory is the Frastrans live on an aging neutron star like in "Dragon's Egg" ;) ) And really the situation gets worse a few states down. :) To say nothing of Texas or Arizona.

jfim 4y ago
> Interestingly the first article flagged ebikes as particularly problematic, which are a pretty common way to extend bike range. Although, they must surely be better than cars just due to mass. Only tangentially related, but I'd assume that most of the emissions from ebikes would be related to brakes, as stopping from higher velocity would wear down brake pads faster. One interesting thing that hybrid and electric vehicles do is that they do regenerative braking, which ends up with less wear on brake pads (and emissions) from slowing down. Justin from Grin Technologies (an ebike part shop focusing on DIYers) has done a presentation on how that works on ebikes, and mentions that he's barely using brake pads now that he's using regenerative braking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYCj4asp9pE&t=970s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYCj4asp9pE&t=970s
sdenton4 4y ago
Looking at the OECD report (possibly the wrong one?) I couldn't find any mention of bicycles except as an alternative to cars to mitigate the problem... Given the faaaar lower mass even of heavy bicycles, I would want to see the actual evidence before worrying too much about the bike contribution to particulate pollution. (rider mass / vehicle mass is a lovely shorthand for vehicle efficiency, as it says a lot about how much acceleration you're 'wasting' on the vehicle. Braking, of course, produces a negative acceleration, so lower mass ratio ~> better efficiency. Aim for a ratio of < 1.0...) https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/4a4dc6ca-en/1/3/2/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/4a4dc6ca-en&_csp_=681d016aff567eeb4efd802d746cdcc4&itemIGO=oecd&itemContentType=book https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/4a4dc6ca-en/1/3/2/index....

jfim 4y ago

> Interestingly the first article flagged ebikes as particularly problematic, which are a pretty common way to extend bike range. Although, they must surely be better than cars just due to mass. Only tangentially related, but I'd assume that most of the emissions from ebikes would be related to brakes, as stopping from higher velocity would wear down brake pads faster. One interesting thing that hybrid and electric vehicles do is that they do regenerative braking, which ends up with less wear on brake pads (and emissions) from slowing down. Justin from Grin Technologies (an ebike part shop focusing on DIYers) has done a presentation on how that works on ebikes, and mentions that he's barely using brake pads now that he's using regenerative braking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYCj4asp9pE&t=970s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYCj4asp9pE&t=970s

sdenton4 4y ago

Looking at the OECD report (possibly the wrong one?) I couldn't find any mention of bicycles except as an alternative to cars to mitigate the problem... Given the faaaar lower mass even of heavy bicycles, I would want to see the actual evidence before worrying too much about the bike contribution to particulate pollution. (rider mass / vehicle mass is a lovely shorthand for vehicle efficiency, as it says a lot about how much acceleration you're 'wasting' on the vehicle. Braking, of course, produces a negative acceleration, so lower mass ratio ~> better efficiency. Aim for a ratio of < 1.0...) https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/4a4dc6ca-en/1/3/2/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/4a4dc6ca-en&_csp_=681d016aff567eeb4efd802d746cdcc4&itemIGO=oecd&itemContentType=book https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/4a4dc6ca-en/1/3/2/index....