Two wheels good

http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13565800&fsrc=rss

by jeffesp • 17 years ago

33 29 17 years ago

amalcon3• 17 years ago

What's wrong with, you know, a regular bicycle? Everyone says people need to get more exercise, and many people spend hours at the gym when they could just combine their workout and commute.

OK, so it's not so great to show up to work smelly. More and more workplaces are offering showers and such, and many gyms offer cheaper "shower-only" memberships.

The main problems with a regular bicycle (cargo/passenger capacity and exposure to weather) are just as present on electrics.

teej• 17 years ago

Biking seems a lot more dangerous here (Baltimore) than in Palo Alto where it was more culturally acceptable.

amalcon3• 17 years ago

Oh, don't get me wrong: it's pretty dangerous here (Boston) as well. I probably should have included "dangerous" in my list of things an electric doesn't actually help with, though. Most of the danger comes from motorists simply not being accustomed to watching for bicycles.

That's the big benefit of the bicycle lanes (all over in Cambridge) as I see them: the fact that there's a lane reminds motorists that someone might be cycling down it.

yan• 17 years ago

You're in Baltimore too? Cool! I always thought I lived in a vacuum of hackery activity.

edit: To stay on topic, I bike to work sometimes and know of a few great bike trails around Baltimore if you're interested. As far as commuting in the city goes, yeah, you're S.O.L.

AndrewO• 17 years ago

I see what you're saying and agree that it doesn't fix everything, but this quote from the article sums it up for me:

> The ease with which you can slip in and out of traffic, without breaking into a sweat... And there is no battle of wills between pedestrian and cyclist. It is no sweat to restart, so the temptation to zip through a red traffic light, menacing people as you do so, is removed... There are no more scary moments when, as a cyclist, you struggle to gain the necessary speed to cope in busy traffic.

Stopping & starting, dealing with cars & pedestrians all while having to think about conserving your momentum so you don't end up having to balance or dismount with slowed/stopped traffic... these are all things I don't trust myself to do in DC traffic after having just woken up or a long day of work. I applaud those who can, but it's a major impediment for a lot of people (at least in US cities).

amalcon3• 17 years ago

If that sort of thing is a big deal to you, then an electric makes sense, certainly. I bought a bicycle last year, counting on the fact that my commute could mostly consist of a single, long bike path, and quickly discovered that these things didn't matter as much as I expected them to, but to each his own. If you do get an electric, though, I'd suggest you try doing it with the pedals once in a while -- it's actually fairly enjoyable.

frankus• 17 years ago

I ride a ChargerBike to work on nice days. It's a pedelec-style, in that it measures your torque input and matches (or multiplies) it with electric power, so there's no throttle (the article is talking about a twist-throttle system).

I probably wouldn't have chosen it except that repossessed it from my dad after he never rode it and I didn't want to add a bunch of road/commuting bits to my mountain bike. I originally gave it to him because I was able to get it for cost as an employee at the outfit that made the electronics (AeroVironment).

The advantage of an ebike is basically that it lets you get somewhere faster than you could on a regular bike with the same effort, while retaining all of the advantages in terms of parking and portability. It costs more than the heavy bike it's built on, but is faster than a comparably-priced lightweight bike.

The electricity is basically rounding error on my monthly bill, and it's free when I charge at work.

And while I'm a big believer in the sort of utilitarian fitness you describe, on well-to-wheels basis an ebiker is arguably more efficient than a conventional cyclist eating a typical western diet.

dougp• 17 years ago

The problem with bicycles in Northern Va is that the season is too short it is either burning hot and you will die of heat stroke or freezing cold and your fingers and ears get frost bite. I had much more luck walking (2.5 miles) to the metro station and then to work then riding a bike that same distance and it felt much safer. At least with electrics the heat stroke part is fixed.

joeyo2• 17 years ago

The problem of cold fingers and ears is solvable for more or less any reasonable climate-- certainly for northern Virgina. There are really excellent bike gloves and hats that can be worn under a bike helmet. Having a good pair of socks is also important. Jackets are less of a problem than you would think because they only really have to break the wind-- the act of cycling keeping you warm-- until the temperatures get well below freezing.

The larger problems with winter bike commuting are dangerous road conditions. Ice and slush on the road are bad enough to contend with if you have four wheels, but they can be quite tricky when you have only two. And to further compound the problem is the fact that the bike lanes and side streets that a cyclist prefers tend to be less frequently salted and cleared.

jrockway2• 17 years ago

burning hot and you will die of heat stroke

You have to remember that when you are riding a bicycle, you are sweating and a lot of air is moving over your body. The result is that you stay pretty cool, even when it's very hot out. (It's also important to wear wicking and breathable clothes. You are not going to be very comfortable in a cotton T-shirt.)

gommm• 17 years ago

I used to ride a bicycle to work during Kyoto's summers (very hot and humid weather) and frankly I find it much more bearable than walking in this weather... The air while riding helps cool off...

lacker• 17 years ago

I don't want to bike to and from work every day. Sometimes I'm just not in the mood to be exhausted when I start working, or to exercise right when I leave work. The electric bike gives you the option either to exercise or to be lazy.

ZeroGravitas• 17 years ago

Whoah there! I bike to work every day on a normal bike and love it but let's not be exclusive just because it's not something we need or want.

I want more secure bike parking, more bike lanes, more bike tracks, more workplaces with shower facilities etc. etc. I don't really mind if some of those extra bikes that will be required to push for these things have electric assist.

For me personally I'm not going to rule out using one in the future. I'm so used to biking to work that it is now a non-negotiable factor for me in my employment choices. The existence of electric assist bikes could expand the number of places I can reach with a reasonable commute. And that's not even counting getting old and feeble or having a steep gradient or undulating hills between home and work.

Options are good, and maybe I'm naive but I believe there's more chance of getting folk onto standard bikes if they can dip their toe in with electric assist models until the get confident or fit enough to commit to going without.

harpastum• 17 years ago

There are problems with biking (and e-biking) up here in Wisconsin that pretty much eliminate it as a primary mode of transport.

Riding a bike in the rain is dangerous, but riding in snow is downright insane. Also, things tend to be pretty spaced out around here. Several of my friends work ~40 miles from where they live--even at 20mph, two hours to get to work is simply not acceptable (not to mention e-bikes running out of charge).

ionfish• 17 years ago

Meanwhile, in crowded London, a 90-minute commute is far from rare...

khafra• 17 years ago

For that kind of commute, you probably want a rapid folding bicycle like the smaller-wheeled Dahons or the Mobiky Genius to take from bus to train to work.

ken• 17 years ago

I've never been to Wisconsin, but I rode my bike 7 miles to work (and 7 miles back) for a couple years in upstate NY, including rain and lake-effect snow. Claims of danger and insanity are often exaggerated. With fenders, lights, and proper tires, I never had any trouble with the weather.

I remember riding past rows of houses where people were digging their cars out, or having trouble getting the engine to start. Fun times.

menloparkbum• 17 years ago

There are problems with biking (and e-biking) up here in Wisconsin that pretty much eliminate it as a primary mode of transport.

Minneapolis has the highest per-capita number of bicycle commuters in the country. Its weather is the same (or worse) than anywhere in Wisconsin and people ride all year round.

jrockway2• 17 years ago

I'm from Chicago. When I didn't ride a bike, I used to think that Chicago had miserable weather 11 months of the year. When I started riding a bike, though, I noticed that the weather is generally great from March-November, 9 months a year. Not riding your bike 3 months out of the year is much better than avoiding it 12 months out of the year. (FWIW, December-February isn't really that bad, it's just not enjoyable. You'd be surprised how non-cold you are once you start moving.)

Also, I am confused as to how riding the bike in the rain is dangerous. Some of my most enjoyable rides are on rainy days. Instead of getting wet and salty from your own sweat, you just get wet.

huherto2• 17 years ago

One thing that I see wrong with our current city model

- Big houses with big yards. This makes cities way bigger, expensive to build infraestructure for, and makes us depend on cars.

I bet that, If we all lived on smaller houses our living expenses would be way lower. Has any city tried this?

warfangle• 17 years ago

I think New York City has been experimenting with high density housing for a couple centuries now.

huherto2• 17 years ago

damn! This is what I get for asking a stupid question.:-P

joeyo2• 17 years ago

They have such nice bedrock for it. :-)

ars• 17 years ago

Oddly enough it's often cheaper to spread out. When you get as dense as NY it's a lot of work to add say a new water pipe, or electric wire. You have to shut down streets, etc. It's a major hassle and expense.

Plus you waste massive amounts of time just getting anywhere (too much congestion, both for humans, cars, and even services like pipes).

It's cheaper to spread out a bit - not too much, but not as dense as NY. I think the best amount is those houses with large yards that you are talking about.

imack• 17 years ago

....four wheels better?

Joking aside, biking is actually a good option here in Vancouver. I actually see it as a form of multi-tasking; Commuting and exercising at the same time.

flipbrad• 17 years ago

just imagine Los Angeles after widespread adoption of electric bikes...

... nah, neither could I.

cubix• 17 years ago

I've noticed a lot of electric scooters lately. I'm curious if they're gaining in popularity elsewhere. Because it technically meets the province's definition of a power assisted "e-bike", you get a slow speed scooter without the hassle of licensing and insurance requirements. They allow a lot of freedom because you can legally ride in both bicycle and car lanes, and park almost anywhere. People are also illegally removing the 32km/h regulator (among other hacks), which is difficult for the police to enforce. It's probably a reasonable way to travel if you live downtown and don't need to climb any steep hills. Of course, the government has caught on now, so I expect the game will change when the e-bike pilot program ends this fall.

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/dandv/vehicle/emerging/e-bi...

rjprins• 17 years ago

I'm pretty sure by far the biggest win in energy savings can be made in smarter spatial planning.

A good city plan keeps the vehicle roads long, bicycle lanes short, has facilities close to housing (shops, schools..)

Or specific for bicycles: here is an interesting document about (re)designing cities for cycling.

http://www.fietsberaad.nl/library/repository/bestanden/Cycli...

Two wheels good

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