"In 2021, half of all trips in the United States were less than three miles, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Making those short trips on an e-bike instead of in a car would likely save people money, cut their emissions, and improve their health and happiness."
@TheWarOnCars I personally see three issues with this article:
In 2021 the COVID emergency was still quite strong and many people were (hopefully) still working from home and limiting their travels/interactions. I don't think the statistics from that year necessarily represents the transportation statistics from a non COVID year.
It follows the trend of trying to move the environment responsibilty to the individual choices instead of the governing policies. I live in Europe and I have been mostly car (and bike) free for more than a decade now. This is thanks to good public transportation and a city design that allows me to get to most places I need without having to rely on personal transportation.
For such a short trips, unless you have some other reason, a normal bike would be better for you health and the environment.
@TheWarOnCars When I had a car in Atlanta, GA area I carried a collapsible pedal bike in the trunk. I could park somewhere (for free) and bike in to the area I wished to visit. This greatly reduced time driving. Same cld be done with collapsible e-bike (altho risk of theft is higher with more expensive bike).
@TheWarOnCars I started making these sub-3-mile trips by cargo #eBikes in 2014, before xtracycle had an electric edgerunner model, with a bbs02 750W mid-drive motor. Within about 1yr, we decided we no longer needed the second car & had dramatically reduced mileage on the primary car too. Many trips to take kids to school and get groceries add up, activities that we used to drive across town for are replaced with closer activities where it was too far to walk but hard to park a car there, &c...
@TheWarOnCars I have 9000 miles on the edgerunner and maybe half that again between the other bikes without odometers, so maybe 1500 bike miles per year displaced 3x that, around 4500 annual car miles, from our lives and budgets, so much money, less stress in traffic, better health, I just can't even spend enough money on #eBikes to break even. #cargoBikes#LeaveTheCarAtHome#eBikesChangeLives#BikeTooter
@enobacon@TheWarOnCars I hear that. But have you seen the Ram commercials where the truck is advertised as "life"? And then it shows the monster truck ripping up the environment, including going to a "secret" fishing spot. How can you compete with "life"? Oh, and don't forget the kiddies going to soccer practice. As a child, I road my bike to football practice. But I guess that is not an option these days.
@tmstreet@TheWarOnCars I'm now transporting 10yo on a bikefriday tandem with electric hub motor, and have a trailerbike option to also transport a friend or the 12yo sibling if needed. At some point we should let them have a safe bike network and more independence though, might be just the two of them on the tandem soon.
@TheWarOnCars E-bikes and similar battery powered vehicles are definitely to be considered a major form of short trip transportation for the future.
The question is, can the electrical grid size up to accommodate this?
@trainman@TheWarOnCars The electrical grid can charge at least 100x as many eBikes as it can electric cars. A household can easily charge multiple ebikes with no electrical upgrades. It's even feasible to charge an e-bike with a couple small solar panels, generally it's only a 200W charger.
@TheWarOnCars We were about 1/2 mile into it this morning and Alice (77) said, "I don't have a battery." (I was charging it last night.) E-Bike riders don't have to do any work. We went back and got it but her attitude was "Meh... I guess" We almost went without it.
@TheWarOnCars
Until a couple of weeks ago, we were a two car household. Just moved to a place that's far more bike/walk friendly for a new job. So we sold the old gas car and replaced it with a cargo e-bike. Still keeping the electric car because work is a cool 40 minute drive in ideal conditions.
I think there's a commuter bus option for work. Not 100% sure how work's schedule and the bus schedule mesh. Going to have to look into that.
It is ridiculous to suggest an e-bike for environmental benefit or to improve health. Better all round would be a traditional bike, or walking (does anyone remember what that is?).
@TheWarOnCars Less than three miles? If you can’t WALK that in less than an hour give yourself a month or so. E-bike <pfft>. What’s up with PEDALING somewhere? Kilometers per pancake. There’s where the real benefits start kicking in! (Yeah, I know this isn’t an option for everyone.) I don’t believe e-bikes to be a solution for much other than making some billionaire a few more clams.
@JoaoTeixeira@TheWarOnCars you can ride an ebike in the rain or choose to use an accoustic bike as a way to stay warmer, and bikes extend the last-mile radius of public transportation by a factor of 4, thus about 16x more locations are within an easy bike ride from a transit hub. All we need to do is squeeze cars into a smaller space (traffic is a gas, thus compressible, and will condense down to the people and goods that actually need to move around, if the pressure is high enough.)
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