Perhaps.. if you've never experienced urban property theft. Which is what prevents me from buying an electric bicycle. Similarly the designers of these products seem to incorporate no anti theft technology into any of their products.
A scooter that goes blisteringly fast? Hardly an innovation on it's own.
The world would probably be better if you didn't assume that everyone's experiences are identical to yours. Otherwise I can just keep using my gas powered truck to get groceries. I can easily afford that and it's "not a problem" for me.
An EV bicycle just seemed more considerate in several ways, and unless it has the features that speak to my needs, I don't see myself using one.
Could you also just put some anti-theft features on the device itself?
Is there some reason NOT to do this?
What an absurd conversation this has been.
For a while I rode my father’s scooter around town, it was brilliant for short errands and fit easily in the boot of my car. Great for when a bicycle is a little too large or you don’t want to expend the energy.
(My father never actually rode the scooter, he hoped that by adding a seat he could use it instead of an old people’s buggy, but he couldn’t get his feet down fast enough and going at a slow speed on a small pavement was hard to keep balance- he got an electric tricycle instead. )
Solves the theft issue for once and for all, unless you get mugged.
Oh, they left F1 to develop another exciting, high performance vehicle that will sell in similar numbers to an F1 car.
> It reportedly produces over 24,000 watts of juice with a high-power dual motor controller setup developed with partner Rage Mechanics, which is a French company making all kinds of high-performance electric microvehicles.
So they actually left F1 to resell a downsized version of someone else's designs (Rage Mechanics developed a 50kW version) with extra springiness in the steering to make it less twitchy at higher speeds.
Assuming speeds are equal I think the consequences of a crash are better on a scooter. You don’t have a crossbar between your legs to trip you as you fall, and you start in a standing position, so you’re more likely to land on your feet. Also your head and shoulders are above the cars so you’re less likely to end up under the car.
Having said that I think scooter crashes are more likely given the tiny wheels and less stable frame. Try riding an e scooter without hands. It doesn’t self balance like a bike.
Still does not do much difference when crashing to someone or something or someone crashing into you.
Good luck on a scooter. You’re a meat pencil.
can this still be called a pothole, lol? at which point does a pothole become a hole...
Try jumping of a car at 25kmh. You'll be on your feet for some time indeed, the next step is both your wrist buckling (or snapping) because you'll instinctively put your hands up, and after that your head contacting the ground. Even at 15kmh I doubt most people would handle that gracefully.
From what I gather the injuries are similar, but escooters are used by more diverse people whereas regular bicycles are more of a lifestyle choice, much more nighttime accidents and accidents involving alcohol
My response to any kind of scooter has always been "No thanks. I like having teeth.". Just not worth it to me. I'll use an ebike if I need to. Feels much more stable to me.
But the e-bikes are more heavy and will also likely make other people suffer.
Assume I hit a car with enough energy to break my leg and the car's windshield. This seems plausible at 10mph. Now, we scale this by 2 orders of magnitude. You could cripple lots of people with this thing in one shot. Bollards wont stop a guy with a scooter.
I laughed out loud. Start up PR is a competition for “what’s the most absurd thing we can say”
I have a cargo e-bike I use as my daily driver, taking the kids to school, picking up groceries etc. If they didn’t exist I’d probably have to pay for (and deal with) a car. A lot of food delivery drivers are on e-bikes. If governments fully embraced them they could change the way a lot of cities look.
This is a real issue: bike parking is insufficient and insecure from theft in many cities. Plus, you need to charge it somewhere, and bringing a conventional bike to an apartment is often prohibitive. These make scooters much more attractive in practice than they otherwise should be.
To me, a foldable bike (with larger wheels and a seat) and a moderately sized battery pack seems like a better compromise between safety and convenience.
Re-invent the Penny Farthing perhaps. An electric version of that, with some funky way of lifting the rider up, would be amazing.
This is like the cronut of bikes, all the downsides of a scooter, and none of the upsides of a motorbike.
At 100 MPH you hit the brakes and instead of stopping the whole thing just rolls over to slam you with the same velocity to the ground ? x)
Is it possible you didn't look at the article and are thinking of something like a Vespa rather than the type of thing you stand upright on while holding onto a handle?
These things have plenty of advantages. They're incredibly portable and easy to charge. When the weather is nice my friend rides his the ~20 miles from his place to my place (which is mostly covered by rail trail bike paths). You can bring one into the office and charge it at your desk. Many public transit systems allow you to bring them on the subway or bus, which at rush hour might not be possible with a normal bicycle. If bike lockups aren't available at the nearest station/stop, this lets people who live within a mile or two still get the advantage of public transit.
> Re-invent the Penny Farthing perhaps. An electric version of that, with some funky way of lifting the rider up, would be amazing.
The penny farthing bike is certainly ridiculous, but I can't imagine a way you could possibly make one look cool. Is it even legal to ride one if you don't have some sort of ironic facial hair, a bowler hat, or a vest?
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