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My trip to DC was... crap was that TEN years ago? Wow. Anyway, I cannot fathom what e-bikes will do to the city. You don't even need to be young / in shape. EBi

My trip to DC was... crap was that TEN years ago? Wow. Anyway, I cannot fathom what e-bikes will do to the city. You don't even need to be young / in shape. EBikes mean everyone gets to putter around DC. I think COVID actually hindered the ebike transformation of major urban centers. People are asking what the point of cities is without offices... people, you need to experience a seamless ebiking experience in a large city, where the infrastructure of millions of people becomes walk out door, unfold and drop your very very portable scooter, ride 15 minutes in the city, stop, fold up scooter. No walk to garage, drive, find insanely expensive parking, walk from parking to your destination. The scooter/ebike is FASTER, practically door to door. The ability of ebikes and scooters to take a big city and, it's like a superpower, shoom, shrinks the entire city by a factor of 5 or 6. Humans basically walk at 3 mph comfortably. Scooters and ebikes? 5x that easily, and with some good dedicated lanes, 8x that easily. A portable escooter where you walz onto subway or el or bus for the longer stuff? Mass transit multiplier too. Europe. I can't imagine what europe would be like for traveling. Backpack, e-scooter, get on train to new city, get off train, drop/unfold e-scooter, practically anywhere in new city is accessible within 15-20 minutes. Fuck all those delivery apps. Why wait for them? If it's not pouring rain, you can get to what you want in 15 minutes. And it's fun, open air, social, sightseeing, get to know the city.

actionablefiber 4y ago
> I think COVID actually hindered the ebike transformation of major urban centers. You should come back to visit DC. In the last two years they have been on an absolute tear building new bicycle infrastructure. It is better than ever before. Lots of people using personal bikes or CaBi combined with taking public transit to extend their mobility without needing a car. > People are asking what the point of cities is without offices... Evidently, those people don't live in cities. In DC there is a decently large and growing contingent of people who live close to downtown and work remotely for firms based elsewhere (included the surrounding suburbs) because the city is nice to live in and spend time in. Lots of conveniences, great access to transit, fantastic people from all over the world.

actionablefiber 4y ago

> I think COVID actually hindered the ebike transformation of major urban centers. You should come back to visit DC. In the last two years they have been on an absolute tear building new bicycle infrastructure. It is better than ever before. Lots of people using personal bikes or CaBi combined with taking public transit to extend their mobility without needing a car. > People are asking what the point of cities is without offices... Evidently, those people don't live in cities. In DC there is a decently large and growing contingent of people who live close to downtown and work remotely for firms based elsewhere (included the surrounding suburbs) because the city is nice to live in and spend time in. Lots of conveniences, great access to transit, fantastic people from all over the world.