Bike country No 1': Dutch go electric in record numbers

Yes please. My commute is by train, and then the last bit by bus. Depending on traffic the bus takes either 2 minutes or 20 minutes and it's infuriating. I'd happily skip the bus by cycling but that either means having a second bike parked where a) there's no space and b) it WILL get stolen sooner or later or I can lug along a bulky folding bike.

I'd much rather carry an electric kick scooter.

I've been riding one as my exclusive mode of transport around the city for about 9 months now (though I just got an electric longboard and have been taking it on short excursions). It is just wonderful. The biggest bonus for me is that I'm able to pretty much keep up with traffic to the point that people are not driving dangerously around me in a bid to pass me within inches. I'm also able to get places faster, ride farther out, and use it for trips I may otherwise have not (and didn't) use my bike for. I do live in a pretty hilly area as well, and making 10MPH up a fairly steep hill certainly makes things "closer".

Why would it be lazy? I do not think "you are lazy since you own and use car", just because I can easily live my life without a car doesn't mean you are lazy if you do not.

I do use a e-bike mostly as a way to be able to bike in situations where it would not be possible to bike in other ways. Many times I do it even though it might be inconvenient compared to using a car parked in my front yard. This is the issue when you use a car I use a bicycle, because it's usually easier than renting one or calling a cab. It might not be that much cheaper for me personally since I spend my transport money in other ways, e.g. to get more time with my family (on trains etc).

I bike ~30 km per day, the last 6 months ~40% of that was by e-bike.

I use one, instead of a car. (Driving a car just seems lazy to me. But I do it sometimes, when I'm feeling lazy or when I have to transport my kids.)

Before 2010 or so, I used a traditional manual bike. But today, a non-powered bike seems to me like using a slow, spinning platter magnetic disk instead of an SSD. Or using a desk without a motor to adjust the height on demand. Or a kerosene lamp instead of LED lighting.

Unless you consider your bike to be only a mechanism to get exercise, in which case inefficiency is desired, the only valid argument against an e-bike in my mind is the cost. And that's valid, in some circumstances.

But you can get every bit as much of a workout on an e-bike -- it's just that you will be going faster. Alternatively, if you don't need a workout right now, you can go about as fast as a non-powered bike with minimal effort.

Where I live in Tokyo, it's 45 minutes to the office by train (due to the walking to/from stations, 35 minutes by 1970s bicyle, and 20 minutes on my battery-powered pedal-assist BESV LX-1.

I don't own an e-bike, but I can see the appeal for commuting. I have no problem riding hard, I used to ride to class 7 miles each way on my fixed gear. Also, if you have a cargo bike such as a Surly Big Dummy or a Bullitt, having an electric assist would make those much more enjoyable.

But riding at all when it's 90 degrees and 100% humidity is not fun when you're wearing long pants and a backpack, especially if your destination doesn't have a shower.

Love your moxie! How do you deal with mud spatter on your business clothes? Sweat when you get to work?

Probably a mix. Most if not all Dutch have one normal bicycle. Multiple per household. This would probably be an addition.

From what I can tell it started with people in their late fifties, sixties, and beyond going electric in order to stay mobile in the face of a degrading body — i.e., to augment the user's strength.

I still think this is the largest group of buyers, but I get the impression — from observing people in traffic — that a good amount of people who use electric bicycles come to depend too much on the engine, hardly providing any power themselves via the pedals. People who cycle along at 15–20 km/h tend to use the battery power as an augmentation, whilst those who pass everyone by at 25 km/h tend to depend on it for at least 90%.

This looks to me like a general loss in healthy exercise.

Then there are the gadget freaks that buy the so-called 'speed pedelecs', which can hit speeds of up to 45 km/h, but because these have recently been relegated to the moped category in Dutch law, these are no longer allowed on bicycle-exclusive cyclepaths, and have to use the main carriage ways instead. Their rise in popularity seems to have stagnated — thankfully! They don't really fit into Dutch traffic as it is, being too fast for cyclepaths, and too exposed to use safely on roads where drivers may expect mopeds, but not souped-up electrical bicycles.

In any case, most people will have owned a normal bicycle before going electric. Some do use it to replace the car for commuting, because a distance of up to 30 km may take much less time on an electric bicycle when traffic is bad, and more healthy to boot — as long as you peddle along!

Almost every dutch person has or had a bicycle, The electric bicycle started out targeting older people so they could keep using a bicycle while getting older. Now they are also targeting young mothers, and commuters. We (dutchies) bought a electric bicycle for my wife because it's easier with a kid in a seat on the back, and it makes the radius where she picks the bicycle over the car bigger.