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Cars are awful. I was fantasizing about an e-bike after reading a thread on HN, but in Phoenix, I'd die for sure. I do not feel safe around other cars in my car

Cars are awful. I was fantasizing about an e-bike after reading a thread on HN, but in Phoenix, I'd die for sure. I do not feel safe around other cars in my car much less a bike. I really wish the US weren't so all in on cars. It's only getting worse with the oversized death-machine trucks saturating the roads. My in-laws are blind as bats and drive something that should require a commercial license.

pastage 4y ago
Getting around on an electric bike will prolong your life. I bike on good infrastructure and it makes all the difference, you see kids bicycle 7km to soccer practice. Two months every year I go to an area such as you describe and while it feels dangerous it really isn't that bad. The stress can be bad if you let it, but as long as you accept it and try to see everything nice that happens you are ok. Try it out.
- mcv 3y ago
  > Getting around on an electric bike will prolong your life. Not if you get killed by a car. That's his point. Bikes are great, but much more so in a society that recognises the benefits of bikes than in a society that sees than as alien and as targets. It does help when more people start to bike. There is safety in numbers, not to mention more understanding and recognition. Netherland has the advantage that we've never really gotten rid of our bikes; as soon as cars were about to take over in the 1960s, people started to fight back. People here have been fighting for bikes and against cars for more than 50 years. In the US, that fight doesn't even have remotely the kind of momentum that it had in Netherland 50 years ago, so there's quite a lot of distance to catch up there.
- HDThoreaun 3y ago
  Have you been to phoenix? Ebikes are not an option.
- mrguyorama 3y ago
  E-bikes are as "dangerous" to your health as motorcycles. It's a non-negligible risk, even if often worth it.

pastage 4y ago

Getting around on an electric bike will prolong your life. I bike on good infrastructure and it makes all the difference, you see kids bicycle 7km to soccer practice. Two months every year I go to an area such as you describe and while it feels dangerous it really isn't that bad. The stress can be bad if you let it, but as long as you accept it and try to see everything nice that happens you are ok. Try it out.

mcv 3y ago
> Getting around on an electric bike will prolong your life. Not if you get killed by a car. That's his point. Bikes are great, but much more so in a society that recognises the benefits of bikes than in a society that sees than as alien and as targets. It does help when more people start to bike. There is safety in numbers, not to mention more understanding and recognition. Netherland has the advantage that we've never really gotten rid of our bikes; as soon as cars were about to take over in the 1960s, people started to fight back. People here have been fighting for bikes and against cars for more than 50 years. In the US, that fight doesn't even have remotely the kind of momentum that it had in Netherland 50 years ago, so there's quite a lot of distance to catch up there.
HDThoreaun 3y ago
Have you been to phoenix? Ebikes are not an option.
mrguyorama 3y ago
E-bikes are as "dangerous" to your health as motorcycles. It's a non-negligible risk, even if often worth it.