@glightly I think there needs to be a new category of recumbent bike: the pseudocar. It would seat 2-10 (ideally with pedals for all), have cargo capacity equivalent to a car trunk, and be enclosed (so you can operate in rain or snow). Basically it would be a car you can pedal. I get they don't want people using e-bikes as electric motorcycles, but there needs to be something that is bigger than a regular bike but smaller than an electric SUV.
@Laplantgenetics@glightly In a different direction, while those are considered light motorized quadricycles (which is a category higher than bicycle but smaller than car), the Renault Twizy 45 and the Citroen Ami are also interesting. 28 mph limit (45 kph). I'm not sure I'd want one of those in the US, but they seem to feel right at home in the tiny streets of old European towns.
@glightly That's my question too. People who are used to normalizing the danger of automobiles often say those e-bikes are dangerous because they can go much faster than the riders are capable of. Well, how many motorists can handle 100 mph?
@daihard It's also incredibly clear that most motorists blow the speed limit as a matter of course. So they're saying because someone chooses more sustainable transportation, that has less mass than a car (and therefore usually does less damage even in worst case), should be hard-limited to 20 mph? WHY haven't we been doing that with cars all these years?
@glightly Japan used to require domestic cars to have an audible "speed warning" that was activated when you exceeded 100 km/h (approx. 62 mph). I don't think that was a very effective method of slowing people down, though. We need a physical speed governor for all cars.
@daihard@glightly My car in Europe has a speed limiter, combined with automatic sign recognition. Of course, there are some small manual steps involved, and it can be overridden, but it's there. I think I like it more than adaptive cruise control when driving in town, and it pairs well with a stick shift since it remains active when shifting.
(my car is a 7-year old mid-range subcompact from a low-end brand, we're not talking about high-end exotic stuff here).
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