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We Sell More E Bikes Than E Cars [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-10-02  

Last month I got an email from my state’s energy office. I’m a disgruntled climate wonk, mostly in the form of opinionated cynicism. My state was offering an $1,100 rebate for low and moderate income folks based on county level incomes. Also there was a lottery. I won. I think they gave it to the first couple thousand people, and they’ll have more through the year. Combined with a $700 discount from the biggest e bike company in the US, a tad of assembly, and I was mobile.

I’ve been noticing tons of teens on them already, and I work in a place where Teslas are passe, and seemingly every auto company has some kind of e car. Volvo, Beemers, Nissan, they make a whirring noise.

Like with everything there’s good and bad. Bikes use a fraction of the resources and electricity that a car does. They take up much less room on the road. Transportation is our largest source of CO2, if we can reduce it in any way, it’s a good thing. I should be able to do most repairs. Assembly took less than the estimated 2 hours.

I’m currently struggling on a couple of old civics. An e bike looks much easier.

Downside is that they are golden for bike thieves, and there is no enforcement here. E bikes have no registration, a thief can turn around and sell it to someone looking to commute tomorrow. I’ve broken padlocks with one blow from a 16 oz hammer, I cut chain to length for heavy equipment with bolt cutters, bolt cutters will cut through any cable, chain or other device, except for a 6’ Arbus chain and lock. A battery operated grinder could cut it but I’ll hope for the best.

I see some e bikes on trails, some, not too many. There are issues with mountain bikes and e bikes but they’ll just have to learn to get along just like hikers learned to get along with them. I do have a bell, which I use when approaching from behind. I also slow right down to walking speed or slower and sometimes I stop and pull over. Starting from a stop is much easier for me, I can use the throttle while pushing with that first pedal.

I also do a lot of my dumb shit smiling like a frat boy on mushrooms. You look like me you spend half your life smiling at people so they don’t reflexively call the police or something. Bike lanes are faster than bike paths,which are really for walking or dog walking, and we need a lot more bike lanes on main roads.

Something I didn’t know is that most people pedal all the time on an e bike, it doubles the distance you get from the battery.

The BBB had an e bike portion targeted towards tax breaks for rich people which thankfully didn’t make the cut. Frankly I think my state’s program which gave full subsidy to incomes that were 80% of median was too generous. I feel like the lower the income the more likely the bikes will be used to commute.

Article about Rad Bikes and evolution of e bikes in NYT. Largest US e bike company, making quality affordable bikes.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/2/2196767/-We-Sell-More-E-Bikes-Than-E-Cars

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