Let's be clear. This is a car. Four wheels. It weighs 225 kg empty and you can add up to 200 kg of cargo. That's not an electric bike, as the manufacturer claims it is. This is a small car that occupies and blocks the bike lane. This concept shouldn't exist. Us cyclists already have to deal with bad infrastructure. I see this as a provocation, not as the positive change it pretends to be. Such vehicles belong on the road, not the bike lane.
(Gift link, needs email) https://wapo.st/4nCgi10
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The intention is made clear by the manufacturer. This vehicle is specifically designed to be used on bike lanes, to avoid being stuck in car traffic. In practice this obviously means it'll block the bike lane or sidewalk while delivery is done, which can take minutes.
"Designed for Cycling infrastructure
eQuad Width 36 inches (910 mm)"
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@jeremiah_ @jwildeboer yes. as long as it's not tampered with.
The difference is modern bike lane standards in the Netherlands are over 1.5m wide, and increasingly we have fietstraats which are several meters wide.
The issue isn't the pedal assist delivery vehicle. The issue is poor cycle infrastructure.
@quixoticgeek @jeremiah_ @jwildeboer It feels like this thing would be fine, as long as they don't park on the bike lane...
If I were a quadbike™ courier, I'd definitely want to stop my quadbike™ closer to the door i'm delivering to, rather than stopping on the bike lane itself
@arjankroonen
Depending on the speed limit of the street it might make sense to move heavier e-things back there based on weight...
The problem is not simple weight though its energy, so a big dude on a bakfiets can be a problem with the right gear ratios and enough of a run up.
@quixoticgeek You're answering "we should separate different types of non-car vehicles" with "just make more bike lane" and that misses the issue.
Folks worried about getting their shit rocked by a fatbike or an electric bakfiets full of amazon shit don't get their problem solved by that vehicle still being allowed in their lane, even if that lane is wider
@EndlessMason @arjankroonen @jeremiah_ @jwildeboer well unless people stop buying stuff online. We're gonna need delivery vehicles. Would you rather a small electric bike thingy, or a long wheel base transit?
I've worked as a bike courier, using bakfiets with a trailer. I've also worked as a delivery driver in a large van. I've seen both sides.
I've also seen how various types of cyclist can mix on a fietstraat.
@quixoticgeek I'm not saying that the concern is actually real, just that you're not specifically addressing it...
Personally the worst I've seen is a fatbike blast past close enough for me to say "jesus", but I've had that with an omafiets when I'm on foot too...
The only time I got into trouble, even during my first time on a bakfiets was because I got overloaded / panicked and didn't do the obviously correct thing (hesitated when i had right of way, forgot to have lights, or not just hitting the bell when somebody was in the path) - basically just a skill issue
The solution is just calming the fuck down and maintaining situational awareness and not being an asshole yourself.
@quixoticgeek I do often wonder if tram lines could be used at night to do some of the logistics that trucks / vans do now by moving a scaled up AH crates into town full of rum/cola/heineken and dropping it off at whatever store, then dragging them back out of town again the next night full of recycling/trash etc
feels like a techbro gadgetbahn idea once I get into small scale shipping containers though
@quixoticgeek
> The CarGoTram was a freight tram in Dresden, Germany that operated between 2001 and 2020. It supplied Volkswagen's "Transparent Factory" with parts for car assembly
Not loving the "was" :(
Jan Wildeboer 😷
Jeremiah C. Foster 🇸🇪🇺🇸
Quixoticgeek
EndlessMason
arjankroonen