This is true even in the states. I bought an electric scooter and sold my car a year ago and haven’t looked back. The more I ride, the more people I see doing the same. The only downsides are weather and dodging cars.
The dodging cars can be resolved by the Council making actual protected bike lanes. Not a bicycle gutter, if they strip a lane of a stroad on each side it can be replaced with a wider pavement, bike lane, grass strip with trees… Safety, shade, nature…epic win for everyone.
Road - parking - green buffer - bike lane - sidewalk - stores.
Where there is parking the green buffer is narrow and where there is no parking the green buffer is wide. Alternatively the parking is covered by PV panels.
Then the road would be much more narrow and drivers would find it harder to fit their ever larger penile-compensation vehicles in it, not to mention their egos!
To a point. If you are the only rider, your risk of dying is very high, because no one around is expecting it. Sometimes the right choice is to keep driving until the infrastructure finally makes things safe.
That is exactly the foresight our planners luckily had in the Netherlands. Build it and they will come. Now after more than 50 years of adding on the infrastructure is so accommodating.
This is a valid point. People indeed aren’t looking out for unusual vehicles going 20mph.
It’s the same reason motorcycle lane splitting works fine in California but would be a disaster in say Florida. People aren’t expecting it.
I think it’s inevitable though that more and more people will be using electric bikes/scooters in the coming years simply because people can no longer afford cars.
This is true even in the states. I bought an electric scooter and sold my car a year ago and haven’t looked back. The more I ride, the more people I see doing the same. The only downsides are weather and dodging cars.
The dodging cars can be resolved by the Council making actual protected bike lanes. Not a bicycle gutter, if they strip a lane of a stroad on each side it can be replaced with a wider pavement, bike lane, grass strip with trees… Safety, shade, nature…epic win for everyone.
Yeah, but then were would the drivers park?
Why doesn’t anybody think of the poor drivers???! /s
Road - parking - green buffer - bike lane - sidewalk - stores.
Where there is parking the green buffer is narrow and where there is no parking the green buffer is wide. Alternatively the parking is covered by PV panels.
But, but, but …
Then the road would be much more narrow and drivers would find it harder to fit their ever larger penile-compensation vehicles in it, not to mention their egos!
To a point. If you are the only rider, your risk of dying is very high, because no one around is expecting it. Sometimes the right choice is to keep driving until the infrastructure finally makes things safe.
That is exactly the foresight our planners luckily had in the Netherlands. Build it and they will come. Now after more than 50 years of adding on the infrastructure is so accommodating.
This is a valid point. People indeed aren’t looking out for unusual vehicles going 20mph. It’s the same reason motorcycle lane splitting works fine in California but would be a disaster in say Florida. People aren’t expecting it.
I think it’s inevitable though that more and more people will be using electric bikes/scooters in the coming years simply because people can no longer afford cars.