[meme] Why do people only seem to mean cars when they talk about electric and/or autonomous vehicles?
[meme] Why do people only seem to mean cars when they talk about electric and/or autonomous vehicles?
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Because:
Electric bikes are often death traps because people don't realize they need to wear actual real protection and not just a rinky dinky helmet (if even that) at speed. And you still have the same problem of disrupting traffic because you are now going "too fast for the bike lane" and "too slow for the car lane"
Electric trains are very much a thing. Pretty much any city based train and even a lot of regional ones are electric because it is literally easier for everyone involved. The issue is with buses where swapping out the batteries is cost and time prohibitive.
And cars are still the primary mode of transportation for significant parts of the world. And public transportation is amazing for cities and interconnected towns (aka "megacities") but not so much for people who live in small towns in the middle of nowhere. You still need cars for that and not getting a face full of exhaust when one drives past you is a really nice thing.
Let it be known that I do not want to attack you personally. But the notion of electric bikes being death traps is something I can't take seriously. I could go outside right now and film the street for an hour and watch 50% of bikes going by being electric, not to mention that you'd be hard pressed to find anyone wearing a helmet or protective gear.
Electric bikes here are generally limited to 25kmh (15mph) and the electric motor will stop the moment you go over that speed. Besides, most people generally don't reach that speed because the largest users of electric bikes here are the over 50.
In my personal experience the problem isn't so much the vehicle as the infrastructure being made for it. For context I live in the Netherlands in a smaller city (far from Amsterdam).
That's great. You can also go back in time 30 or 40 years and see almost nobody wearing seat belts in cars. And if everyone is stupid, that means it is safe!
25 MPH without any form of cabin/canopy is REALLY fast (especially for a stop-go environment like a city which is all that anyone actually cares about in these discussions). Quick google puts random cycling oriented websites saying road bikes average out 13-17 mph. So we are looking at almost double the speed of where people already SHOULD be wearing helmets because one good fall means they need a hose to wipe your brains off the pavement. It doesn't happen super often, but that is more because... cars do a good job of taking out cyclists anyway.
And whether you and your 50 year old buddies personally care: This impacts adoption. Because renting out electric scooters is already a giant mess and if people hadn't universally decided they hate those, there would be a lot more dead tech bros on the streets (... which, for legal reasons, would be bad). Which is the issue. Because people who live in an area already have cars or know how to use public transportation or are hardcore cyclists with heads made out of reinforced titanium. People on a holiday or work trip either don't even consider it to be an option or... question the stupidity of the people flying past at 25 MPH without helmets.
If there were an actual culture of safety and a way to get a helmet that wasn't already cracked and dented: We would see a lot more electric bicycle rentals and people probably would care about those. As it stands, they are a niche item that is often associated with "he was taken from us so early..."
25mph != 25kmh
Here the trains and busses are both electric, and the buses charge with overhead chargers at the main bus station.
Really? that is actually awesome. If you don't mind, where is "here"
My understanding was that it was generally time prohibitive for buses as you would need to return to the depot a lot more often and wait for 10-20 minutes each time. Although could see a mix of fast charging and keeping a very low overall percentage helping out. Although, that can't be great for the batteries themselves.
“Here” is in the Netherlands. Now don’t get me wrong, we definitely do not use them everywhere (yet), but it’s viable at least.
https://www.ebusco.com/dutch-forerunner-in-europe-switching-to-electric-buses/
You don't need cars to travel small towns. People have been travelling small towns without cars for thousands of years.