CelloMom On CarsToday, two-wheeled EVs "are actually displacing four times as much demand for oil as all the world’s electric cars at present"
Also,
"If you commute on an e-bike 20km a day, five days a week, your charging cost would be about $20 – annually. "
Think about it:
You don't need to be rich enough for a $50,000 car.*
You don't need to be old enough for a driver license.
You don't need insurance.
You don't need parking money.
You don't need legal status, even.
You CAN get to places you can't with a car.
You can feel the wind in your face.
You can laugh at the price boards at the gas stations.
THIS is the bit missing from #JustTransition proposals: safe bike lanes.
https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-280-million-electric-bikes-and-mopeds-are-cutting-demand-for-oil-far-more-than-electric-cars-213870
#BikeTooter
*average price of new car in the US.
Nic Dafis@CelloMomOnCars I park my bike at our local petrol station/minimarket, which is 3 miles from our house and 200m from our nearest bus stop, so very convenient. We also do our regular grocery shopping there, so it’s a genuine pleasure when they ask “any fuel today?” and I can point at the peanuts and say, “just these, thanks”.
kimu@CelloMomOnCars THIS, exactly. I save a ridiculous amount on parking fees by biking to my office. My 13yo can bike places as easily as I can. And my ebike cost a fraction of what a car costs to purchase, insure, run, and maintain.
Protected bike lanes for climate heroes like you and your child!
TurningLeaf@CelloMomOnCars All I am missing is the pathway to travel that won’t result in me getting crushed by a car. I am unfortunately constrained by high speed roads that have no shoulders at all. Not a day goes by where I do not dream of having a safe bike lane or (even better) a bike path that could get me to just a grocery store.
You are not alone: I don't know where you live but I do know that 60% of Americans want to bike - but are afraid to.
Organise your neighbours.
Show up in large numbers at meetings of city councils and county boards where road design is discussed and ask for safe bike lanes and mobility justice.
(Pro tip: gird for a marathon. You're aiming for nothing less than a culture change. But those happen).
@CelloMomOnCars Thank you. Western Mass for me. Progress on connecting bike paths is being made slowly but yes, it is a marathon. The road issues, sometimes you just end up in the wrong place I guess because these roads are kinda stuck the way they are.
Brian DearI do have to wonder, though: how many more PM2.5 particulates and other bad stuff in the air a 20km-a-day, 5-days-a-week e-bike rider gets in their lungs than say an equivalent EV driver.
It's an excellent question.
The answer: "it depends". Obviously, strenuous biking in Delhi-level pollution is not good for you. But in general,
"If the counterfactual was driving, rather than staying at home, the benefits of [physical activity] would exceed harms from air pollution up to 3 h 30 min of cycling per day. "
from the journal Preventative Medicine:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4893018/
Can air pollution negate the health benefits of cycling and walking?
Active travel (cycling, walking) is beneficial for the health due to increased physical activity (PA). However, active travel may increase the intake of air pollution, leading to negative health consequences. We examined the risk–benefit balance ...
From a Dutch study on the risks of inhaling air pollution and cars crashing into you:
"On average, the estimated health benefits of cycling were substantially larger than the risks relative to car driving for individuals shifting their mode of transport."
Do the Health Benefits of Cycling Outweigh the Risks?
Although from a societal point of view a modal shift from car to bicycle may have beneficial health effects due to decreased air pollution emissions, decreased greenhouse gas emissions, and increased levels of physical activity, shifts in individual adverse ...
@CelloMomOnCars An amazing place to see the popularity of e-bikes among folks that you would never have guessed would adopt them is along the Cape Cod Canal. The bike path/service road that runs alongside is filled with folks using them to travel their fishing spots during the summer. Certainly not your typical e-bike demographic but wow are they popular there. They simply work and that is all that matters in the end.
"They simply work"
That's the magic right there.
Ben@CelloMomOnCars One more reason to massively invest in bike infrastructure.
The more so as 60% of Americans want to bike - but are afraid to do so. (With good reason, I should add).
We do need to look outside the box with four wheels for solutions.
climate voter/degrowthist@CelloMomOnCars Also, three wheeled erecumbents are cool for those who have balance or other issues.
Am I?@CelloMomOnCars
https://www.zeromotorcycles.com
👆Does this count? 
Electric versions of motorcycles are in fact the vast majority of those 250 million two-wheeler demographic: most of them are in use in Asia.
What is developing now is a continuous spectrum, from the e-scooter and e-board to Zeros and Harleys.
@CelloMomOnCars
Cool, I always somehow thought it, like the e-cars, just doesn't matter as much, but when I compare what my zero uses even compared to small new e-cars, I can see why it would.
With EVs weight really matters.
@ellotheth
Cool, I always somehow thought it, like the e-cars, just doesn't matter as much, but when I compare what my zero uses even compared to small new e-cars, I can see why it would.
With EVs weight really matters.
@ellotheth
ida iyes inoine@CelloMomOnCars not just two-wheeled 😉 my electric skateboard makes for an awesome means of transportation, when i don't have more cargo than can fit in a backpack 😁
My best friend also commutes to work every day on an electric skateboard. 🙂
I've watched people go by on e-boards, with a little envy: looks like so much fun!
Rob McKenna@CelloMomOnCars I’ve been saying it for years: the purpose of electric cars is not to save the environment, it’s to save the car industry.
Disagree. If the purpose of electric cars was to save the car industry, one would think the car industry would have been scrambling to transition to electric cars for decades. But that is not what we’ve seen. Instead pretty much every car-maker defiantly continues making big, wasteful fossil-fuel vehicles, and downplays any EV urgency. It took outsider upstart companies to FORCE the EV transition into being. Lazy, stubborn legacy car-makers? More than one is toast.
I think he meant the purpose of EV subsidies.
US Inflation Reduction Act:
Up to $ 7500 rebate for e-car
Zero rebate for e-bike
Also near-zero for beefing up walking, biking, and public transit.
It's part #CarBrain, but certainly part to help out the car industry.
Nothings Monstered@CelloMomOnCars via bsky:
"You could power an ebike off electricity from a turbine powered by a wood burning stove and it would still be better for the planet than driving a Prius the same distance because it just does not take much energy to move a bike around relative to a car."
Bill Woodcock@CelloMomOnCars
Just back from my fourth trip of the day on my Tern GSD. It does feel like the F350 dually crew-cab of bikes, but it's better than hauling out the car.
Just back from my fourth trip of the day on my Tern GSD. It does feel like the F350 dually crew-cab of bikes, but it's better than hauling out the car.