I mean, maybe? I bike my two children to preschool + elementary on a cargo e-bike, weather permitting, and it's fantastic. Sometimes I take both at the same time, sometimes my wife and I split them up. Works great. When the weather sucks we drive or bus but it handles more than 50% of our trips.
The cargo + electric combo is really amazing.
The bike, a Tern GSD with a big two passenger seat for the kids, wasn't cheap ($6k) but it lets us get away with owning only one car using far less uber'ing, and is way less expensive and hassle than a second car.
(This is in Pittsburgh - it's hilly and we have weather, but we don't have too many bike-hostile drivers in the city)
But you still need a car for the other amount of time. Until that problem is solved, "we bike on a nice day" and it works 50% of the time is not really a counter argument...
Sure it is - it's less CO2, I'm in better shape, it's less wear on the roads, I don't take up parking spaces as much, and it lets us avoid buying a second car. (And it's a lot cheaper per mile)
The perfect is the enemy of the good. E-bikes are good. They're not perfect on their own and that's ok.
Edited to add: and I left off: they're WAY more fun! It's delightful riding around on it compared to being stuck in a car in rush hour traffic. :-) the bike is almost never stopped. and we get to say hi to more people we know as we pass by. Much better experience, even if a big rainstorm sends us back into the car.
I never said it’s not awesome that you cut your car usage in half. I’m saying you didn't eliminate it so it’s not like you could go carless, which was the strong assertion a few comments up.
How is going from 2 cars to 1 car not a positive? And using that single car only when absolutely necessary also not a positive? Nobody is claiming cars should be banned outright. We’re only claiming cars are overused in the US.
I said reducing your car usage by half doesn't eliminate your need for a car. You still have to buy the car. You still have the need for the car. We’re in a thread under “most people don’t need a car”.
No. At best most people use a car more than necessary, unless you live in a dense city, maybe then you don't need a car. But then you aren't most people.
It technically did eliminate their need for -a- car, although they do still need a car.
And frankly that -is- a point worth remembering. I know lots of couples that could be able to get by with a single vehicle instead of two at a significant financial benefit to them as well as an environmental benefit.
I know in my late 20s I was able to ride my -normal- bike to and from Meijer and get 40-80$ of groceries (2008 dollars mind you) in a trip. Back then that lasted the two of us a week, although yes I had to hoof it back for the sake of perishables. And yes I balanced triple bagged items along the handlebars.
But, frankly, if I had the money for even a small 'trailer' that wouldn't have even been an issue. It's amazing how much volume a child trailer has for groceries/etc when there isn't an actual child involved.
Edited to add: maybe the bigger questions are why we have economic and social pressures for single folks to have a car and DINKs (ESPECIALLY SINKs) to have two cars.
I bike a lot because of a game I play (Turfgame.com). On my trips I have noticed that almost every house has space for two cars. If it's winter I see tracks of two cars outside most houses. They also have at least one snow mobile and in the summer there is motorbikes and a special class of car that can be driven by youth (I forget what age though). Every third also have some sort of camper parked on the side of the house. And a lot of them also have a boat since it's close to the coast.
And this in a city that has max 500 m to a busstop frequented at least once per hour but mostly every 5-10 minutes. And bike roads covering the whole town. It's just a status symbol with social pressure. You have to have a House, Kids, Car and a dog/cats or you are a looser.
I also do most shopping with the bike, have baskets on the back of it. Works really nice. The kid bikes to school until the ice shows up, then it's bus time. Bigger things still go in the car and I have a job that involves needing the car to transport handicapped people now and then so can't get rid of it yet.
If the whole family is going somewhere we also choose the car because the bus is much more expensive and usually it also involves shopping for the grandma 60 km away.
Side note but I’m so glad you mentioned turfgame. I was into turf.ly long ago and have always missed it after it went down. I like how this one has a cyclic cadence to it.
I live in a rural-ish area.
School is a solid 15min drive, there are many steep hills and the nearest store is more than a mile away. My kid is at the end of pre-teen years and I bought an ebike, carful to get one that is legal for children to ride in my state. I also bought MotoCross-level safety gear(helmet, gloves, upper body armor, eye pro)
The child takes the bike to school, practice, activities and friends houses when the North East weather cooperates. For me, the closest dropoff event is 4 miles. 1mile to drop off, 1 mile to get home, and the same to pick up. This milage increases rapidly as the base distance increases.
I havent gotten rid of either of our two SUVs (NorthEast Winter sucks), but I have a remarkable reduction in gas usage. Selfishly, I dont have to stop what Im doing to transport the child.
I didnt do this for ecological reasons, but to give my child some freedom and the ability to get out on their own. The ebike is 3 months old and has 350 miles on it already. Those are all miles that didnt come out of my gas tank or go into the environment.
I mean the challenge was that “most people don't need a car”. I’m not saying don't ride a bike and reduce your car dependence… that’s awesome. I’m saying that cutting usage in half doesn't support the “most people don't need a car” angle. Most people still need a car.
I think that is a touchy angle. The statement is probably better as "most people shouldn't need a car"
The touchy part is be ause the logic often goes, because 100% can't get off cars, the necessary infrastructure to allow the 20% who could, won't be built.
It's like public transit, it sucks due to shoe string funding, ridership is low because it sucks, funding is then reduced because ridership is low.
There are about 1.1 billion passenger cars in the work and over 8 billion people. Thus most people don’t need a car.
The requirement for “most people need a car” depends on the definition of most people. Live in a small town in Arizona? Sure you need a car. Live in TriBeCa? You don’t need a car.
I'd be terrified of having a $6000 ebike stolen. I'm already in my third one after having two stolen from my apartment complex, and it's wasn't in a bad neighborhood.
It could happen. I don't leave it parked outside very much - it stays in my garage at home and a lot of my uses for it are short, like dropping kids at school or taking kids to brief activity (this morning I'm talking 10yo to Kung Fu). I use a heavy chain lock with it -- I don't mind a little extra weight since the bike is already 85+ lbs.
I think of and treat this bike as my second car more than as a typical "bike".
(It's kind of funny that with the huge size of cars in the US these days, our car won't fit into the garage, so the e-bike gets to share it with a rack of computers. :-)
Does that math include repairs, gas, insurance, etc? The average monthly cost of owning a car in California is ~$500.
It also sounds like you might be an outlier, the average used car cost is much higher than that[2], let alone new[3]. It's ok to not fall on the average, but it is important to notice when you do.
I chose the expensive one. The RadPower is a lot - a LOT - cheaper. The Tern is a bit nicer but not 3x nicer; just as with cars, there's diminishing returns on price, but I had the money and wanted to get the nicer one.
But at $0.10 vs $0.50 per mile of operating costs, the TCO is much lower than an equivalently priced car. I bought the bike planning on getting at least 10 years out of it. My road bike is 17 years old and going strong, which is better than I can say for any car I've owned
The cargo + electric combo is really amazing.
The bike, a Tern GSD with a big two passenger seat for the kids, wasn't cheap ($6k) but it lets us get away with owning only one car using far less uber'ing, and is way less expensive and hassle than a second car.
(This is in Pittsburgh - it's hilly and we have weather, but we don't have too many bike-hostile drivers in the city)