Ebikes would've been great in like 2018 before governments started regulating them to make them not as good. I don't even know what's going on these days in ebikes politics but I dismissed them as something I'll never buy when they started putting remote speed limiters in them. I'll just peddle myself on a cheapo bike.
The Telegraph here has done the same for Ebikes and Escooters. But mostly cyclists. Its been weeks of these articles. They're not alone either, the Mail, Express and Sun have done the same. Its to create the illusion of your Government tackling a problem that doesnt really exist, as ours announced they'd be "bringing in new measures" recently only to launch a General Election a couple of days after.
They're too damned popular. And too damned affordable. And way too much newspaper/tv ad revenue comes from automobiles. Someone's got to put a thumb on the scale and get people back into SUVs.
there really is an issue though. it's an unregulated mess and for every ebiker who is a clean energy micro mobility advocate there's half a dozen people who buy them because they don't have a license for whatever reason or are trying to skirt as many road laws as possible.
So what? If someone loses their license they still have the right to be able to pay their bills. Public transport isn't always an option, and Uber/Lift are as expensive as cabs now; how else do you expect an unlicensed person to get to work?
that's not the point I'm making. I'm not saying those who are unlicensed do not have a right to transportation. I'm saying that there are problems in the space where regulations need to be applied.
Like effing infrastructure. E-scooters shouldn’t be in traffic nor on a sidewalk. Having an actual dedicated right of way appropriate to the speed of different types of movement would go a long way toward making it safer for all
Really it’s only three- a car lane, and e-anything plus bicycle lane, and a pedestrian lane. But clearly distinct and protected
From the article it sounds like a lot of the complaints are any delivery gig workers, not pedestrians. The gig workers are incentivized to go fast and bike recklessly in a way that pedestrians aren't
Some of the proposals the safety conscious people are suggesting, though, feel a bit harsh to me. I don't want to have to get a licence for a bike that assists me when going up hill. On the other hand, if people are treating these like electric motorcycles then vehicle lisencing makes more sense to me
As for the article, I felt like it was balanced in a way the headline is not
Are car drivers not just pedestrians that want to go faster? Each pedestrian that wants to go faster and chooses an E-Bike instead of a car is a win to me.
You know what they mean though. This isn't someone who was a car who is now an ebike. This is someone who was feet or four or two wheels who is now doing 25mph on the sidewalk with no insurance. Once again, infrastructure is stuck catching up with technology, and that's normal, but we are in the middle of it now.
I don't live in NY, but I used to drive everywhere because the buses are slow AF (1hr+ to go less than seven miles) and I'm not walking 14+ miles up hills to see friends and family. Ebikes are used here to get up steep 18-28% grade hills. Because of ebikes, I'm able to run errands that I used to have to drive to, for pennies in electricity instead of $70 in gas and $30 in parking. The vast majority of all bikers stick to the bike lanes where available and obey the 15mph limits unless they are in lycra. But lycra types aren't riding ebikes anyways, lol. Incredibly, one of our family friends got pulled over for getting clocked at 40mph on a traditional road bike.
It's really annoying, though. If I ride in the street, I get honked at by cars for "going too slow" as the ebike can only do 20mph sustained. If there are no bike lanes, biking on the sidewalk is the only safe option on stroads and 35mph bridges. There's this massive gap in infrastructure where bikes usually get tossed the scraps of "just use the bridge sidewalk even though it's only 24 inches wide".
Cars routinely park in the bike lanes here, too, forcing most riders into the street because of Amazon drivers or people pulling into hotels and putting their hazards on. Some riders specifically avoid the bike lanes here because they get the worst lights at traffic stops (eg, one 15 second light every few minutes while cars and pedestrians get green lights and crosswalks for much more time, incentivizing people to ride with cars or crosswalks).
I think the most relevant solution is to significantly step up funding to ensure that most roads have wide sidewalks and generous, barrier-protected bike lanes where people cannot get doored and landscaping isolates pedestrians from the bike lanes. If Japan, France, and the Netherlands can do it, so can we.
Just consider all the people annoyed by ebikes. Clearly cars are much more sane and rational. I mean what is a few thousand lives compared to some good old fashioned outrage.
All of the major newspapers and media outlets are owned by the billionaire class, and it's been that way for over a decade.
It's time to stop clutching your pearls every time your media company of choice does something in service to the billionaire class and stop giving them your clicks.
If every media outlet is owned by billionaires, and I should stop visiting each one that does something in service to that class, am I just ultimately left newsless?
The proper thing to do is to call out this BS and let the NYT know that this is bullshit. Don’t hide from it, fight it.
Remember the headlines about the massive pollution drop that occurred in Spring 2020 after most workplaces went remote?
Cars and planes are the problem. Unfortunately, cars and planes make the billionaires a lot of money, so there won't be any meaningful change to our transportation systems.
Interestingly the COVID lockdowns might be what launched the 15min city conspiracy into the mainstream. Climate deniers saw articles about how the covid lockdowns reduced emissions and warped that into the theory that 15 min cities are a plot to restrict personal movement.
Source: climate deniers playbook podcast aka the climate town peeps
cars and planes make the billionaires a lot of money
Isn’t there a billionaire who wishes to make tons of money on railroads and railroad construction? Please, bribe our politicians to spend the hundreds of billions a we need to spend
Is this an American thing? In Australia the leading cause is suicide, with auto accidents a distant second. However, it is the leading cause for 1-14 year olds.
Exactly. As I think I've said it before, there are a lot of numbskulls who think the PEVs work just like manual powered ones. But, with the increased speed, faster acceleration, and the general less work it takes to use one can make them take stupid risks that normally they wouldn't otherwise.
For instance, they may be cruising down a road at 30mph. Coming to an intersection, they see the light is red, but since they aren't in a car, they think it shouldn't apply to them as they think that's only for cars. What they didn't realize is there is a tanker truck coming down the cross-street. The truck isn't able to stop in time to avoid the guy on a e-bike who just darted out. The truck driver still tries to futilly veer away while slamming on the brakes causing the truck to jack knife and rollover. Smashing and killing the driver of a car that driving along next to it along with spilling whatever was in the tanks.
The end of it now is the e-bike rider and the driver in the car are dead, quite possibly the truck driver too. There is also a toxic spill that requires everyone in the immediate area to evacuate to a safe area until it is cleaned up. The roadway is closed for multiple hours, causing major delays and loss of business/service to the shops in the area. (hopefully no medical facilities) All this because the idiot on the e-bike didn't bother to stop like they should have.
While there are some laws and rules in regards to PEVs, they are generally far and away from being complete or enacted/enforced in all areas. This in my opinion needs to be made a priority to achieve at least some semblance of safety and responsibility of all parties.
I'm dreading what will happen at work. I even paid for the Win11 upgrade on my personal desktop, used it for a month and then installed Mint and never looked back. Not being able to move the start bar is such a minor thing, but it's a great indicator of how locked down that PoS is and how little they care about what users want.
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