- 27 Jan 2024 17:47
#15303087
"Duncan’s experience hints at the promise of e-bikes in American culture. For more than a century, bicycle revivals have come and gone in the United States, each one presaging a return to gasoline vehicles.
But the appeal of e-bikes, especially among people who haven’t ridden a bike in decades, may help change cities’ car-centric ways. Cities are under growing pressure to reinvent themselves after the pandemic shifted how we live and work.From New York to Cleveland, city officials have rolled out measures to prod drivers to leave their cars at home, from closing streets to traffic to creating “15-minute cities” where life’s essentials are just a walk, bike or transit ride away. Vast networks of safe bike lanes are becoming mainstays of downtowns and business districts.
It wasn’t until she had a family that she considered riding again. “I was really thinking how do we manage a one-car household” So McCann bought a $4,000 Tern GSD — an unofficial abbreviation, she says, for “get s--- done.” She has since covered about 3,100 miles. “I would have gotten into a car and sat in traffic adding to the congestion and pollution,” she says. “But now the question when I get dressed in the morning is, ‘Can I bike in that?’”
“There’s something really special about being on a bike when the sun is coming up. All the shops are opening, it feels like a movie, and I get to do it every day,” she says. “My biggest regret after 12 years in San Francisco is not getting on a bike sooner."
Europe is way ahead of us, but I think we have crossed a threshold. It's becoming the new norm. I bought one a few years ago, changed my life for the better.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/10/17/electric-bikes-cars-cost-testing/
But the appeal of e-bikes, especially among people who haven’t ridden a bike in decades, may help change cities’ car-centric ways. Cities are under growing pressure to reinvent themselves after the pandemic shifted how we live and work.From New York to Cleveland, city officials have rolled out measures to prod drivers to leave their cars at home, from closing streets to traffic to creating “15-minute cities” where life’s essentials are just a walk, bike or transit ride away. Vast networks of safe bike lanes are becoming mainstays of downtowns and business districts.
It wasn’t until she had a family that she considered riding again. “I was really thinking how do we manage a one-car household” So McCann bought a $4,000 Tern GSD — an unofficial abbreviation, she says, for “get s--- done.” She has since covered about 3,100 miles. “I would have gotten into a car and sat in traffic adding to the congestion and pollution,” she says. “But now the question when I get dressed in the morning is, ‘Can I bike in that?’”
“There’s something really special about being on a bike when the sun is coming up. All the shops are opening, it feels like a movie, and I get to do it every day,” she says. “My biggest regret after 12 years in San Francisco is not getting on a bike sooner."
Europe is way ahead of us, but I think we have crossed a threshold. It's becoming the new norm. I bought one a few years ago, changed my life for the better.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/10/17/electric-bikes-cars-cost-testing/
Facts have a well known liberal bias
- By FiveofSwords
- By Potemkin
- By KurtFF8