<story><title>Electric Bikes Won Over China. Is the U.S. Next?</title><url>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-02/electric-bike-makers-woo-americans</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>doctorpangloss</author><text>eBikes are sincerely a great alternative to cars for me. I&amp;#x27;ve been using an electric bike (Stromer ST1) for about 3 years now in LA and Boston. It makes perfect sense for these cities.&lt;p&gt;The total cost of ownership is way below a car, due to the low cost of Uber, other people with cars, insurance and gas. In high traffic and hard parking cities like LA and Boston, I get to my destination faster. And though a bicycle is almost 7x as dangerous per mile ridden, I travel much less—maybe 1,000 miles a year instead of the 15,000 I did by car. While the weather is a problem in Boston sometimes, some gloves and a warm coat tide it over well. Besides, who wants to drive in a snowstorm? Overall, the experience holds up to close scrutiny.&lt;p&gt;Conversely, I am pretty much subsidized by other people&amp;#x27;s vehicles. And in LA, I nonetheless still owned a $1,000 Toyota with a $50&amp;#x2F;mo insurance and low hundreds in parking tickets to keep it outside. While that ownership was only a small part of time, it was necessary.&lt;p&gt;eBikes I think can really effectively complement ride sharing and car sharing. It will save everyone money. And as more people adopt them, the danger of biking will decline through changes in infrastructure like bike lanes and lower speed limits.&lt;p&gt;Ironically, probably the least persuasive thing is pointing out how the Chinese adopt eBikes. Americans don&amp;#x27;t want to emulate Chinese anything. It needs to seem cool, organic, high class. Besides, a $3,500 eBike won&amp;#x27;t break when you come to a fast stop the way a $500 eBike conversion will. Better to keep it safe and expensive than mass manufactured and dangerous.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jean_claude</author><text>What&amp;#x27;s your source on the claim that bicycling is 7x more dangerous than driving a car?&lt;p&gt;Most sources put it around 2.5x more dangerous than driving, and I&amp;#x27;d wager most of those deaths come from inexperienced riders who don&amp;#x27;t know the traffic laws as applied to bicyclists.&lt;p&gt;Fatalities Per Mile&lt;p&gt;Motor Vehicle Travel.................... Bicycle Travel&lt;p&gt;42,000 killed........................... 813 killed&lt;p&gt;2.56 trillion miles..................... 21 billion miles&lt;p&gt;0.016 fatalities per million miles...... 0.039 fatalities per million miles&lt;p&gt;Data from Traffic Safety Facts 1997
and The Environmental Benefits of Cycling and Walking&lt;p&gt;Pulled from &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bellboycott.com&amp;#x2F;cached&amp;#x2F;www.kenkifer.com&amp;#x2F;bikepages&amp;#x2F;health&amp;#x2F;risks.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bellboycott.com&amp;#x2F;cached&amp;#x2F;www.kenkifer.com&amp;#x2F;bikepages...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Electric Bikes Won Over China. Is the U.S. Next?</title><url>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-02/electric-bike-makers-woo-americans</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>doctorpangloss</author><text>eBikes are sincerely a great alternative to cars for me. I&amp;#x27;ve been using an electric bike (Stromer ST1) for about 3 years now in LA and Boston. It makes perfect sense for these cities.&lt;p&gt;The total cost of ownership is way below a car, due to the low cost of Uber, other people with cars, insurance and gas. In high traffic and hard parking cities like LA and Boston, I get to my destination faster. And though a bicycle is almost 7x as dangerous per mile ridden, I travel much less—maybe 1,000 miles a year instead of the 15,000 I did by car. While the weather is a problem in Boston sometimes, some gloves and a warm coat tide it over well. Besides, who wants to drive in a snowstorm? Overall, the experience holds up to close scrutiny.&lt;p&gt;Conversely, I am pretty much subsidized by other people&amp;#x27;s vehicles. And in LA, I nonetheless still owned a $1,000 Toyota with a $50&amp;#x2F;mo insurance and low hundreds in parking tickets to keep it outside. While that ownership was only a small part of time, it was necessary.&lt;p&gt;eBikes I think can really effectively complement ride sharing and car sharing. It will save everyone money. And as more people adopt them, the danger of biking will decline through changes in infrastructure like bike lanes and lower speed limits.&lt;p&gt;Ironically, probably the least persuasive thing is pointing out how the Chinese adopt eBikes. Americans don&amp;#x27;t want to emulate Chinese anything. It needs to seem cool, organic, high class. Besides, a $3,500 eBike won&amp;#x27;t break when you come to a fast stop the way a $500 eBike conversion will. Better to keep it safe and expensive than mass manufactured and dangerous.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kgermino</author><text>&lt;i&gt;Conversely, I am pretty much subsidized by other people&amp;#x27;s vehicles.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Where are you getting that from? Car specific taxes generally don&amp;#x27;t even come close to paying for roads, especially the roads bicycles are likely to be using. In the US its actually far more likely that you&amp;#x27;re subsidizing them than the other way around.</text></comment>