Hacker News Reader

Comment by underbluewaters | Hacker News Reader

I've been commuting using a class-1 (limited to 20 mph) e-bike around Santa Barbara, CA for the last year and it is a dream. Far better experience than I expected. It won't work in all cities but if you have reasonable bike lanes switching over from a car can have many benefits.

  1. Cost. Sure it's a high initial outlay (3k) but I'm not paying for insurance, gas, parking, and auto loan payments.
  2. Faster. I can hop on my bike, ride to my building at 20mph, and park in my office. No dealing with paid parking in the city and walking from the lot.
  3. Better for my physical and mental health. The daily exercise, fresh air, and feeling of connection to the bustle of the streets makes me happier.

If you have a short commute and have a safe route to work or errands I highly recommend giving it a try. Being able to pick up speed and keep up with traffic helps make it much safer and easier than a non-assist bike.

View on HN

We recently got a class 1 electric cargo bike, and it's also been a dream. With it, we can transport one adult, both kids, and a couple weeks' worth of groceries. Throw in a second (in this case non-e) bike, and that's an additional adult and a decent amount of extra cargo.

If nothing else, it's easily worth the experience of getting the kids to and from school. It takes less time and it's enjoyable instead of aggravating. Win-win.

I'm finding that, in my city, we tend to move faster than traffic if there's any traffic at all. Cars might go faster when they're not stopped, but they're spending most their time queued up at traffic lights and stop signs. Bikes get to go to ride right past those lines.

I have been using a used RadPower [1] bike for the last 1.5 years in Seattle. I now drive the car less than < 50 miles per month. I use the ebike and some bus, but mostly bike. Depending on the urgency and my want for exercise, I can adjust the level of effort, something that cannot be done in the car. The bike is faster and actually enjoyable. The batteries should be standardized so that refurbishment and recycling can be done en masse.

[1] https://www.radpowerbikes.com/

> The batteries should be standardized so that refurbishment and recycling can be done en masse.

To clarify, ebike batteries across manufacturers should be standardized.

I remember when Dean Kaman introduced ginger/Segway as a transformational revolution in personal transportation...

If only he’d thought of electrifying available people-powered systems and miniaturizing as well adding capacity rather than re-inventing things. Of course hindsight... but what if he’d seen things differently.

yes, the segway's innovation was essentially a consequence of moore's law: consumer-oriented computers and sensors were small enough, fast enough, robust enough, and power-efficient enough to calculate dynamic stability for locomotion in real-time (my field of study in grad school).

it was awe-inspiring and admirable from an engineering standpoint, but painfully misapplied and dorky from a societal one.

kamen could have used this technological advance on any number of (existing) personal transport machines, but he chose to invent his own, as inventors are wont to do.

All the kids these days seem to want a hoverboard. So the Segway is still a success IMO. Albeit limited to toy usage (for now), but a lot of inventions start out as a toy.

I’ve been doing a commute from Cambridge ma to Boston with an ebike this year. I agree it’s big plus is being able to pick up speed rapidly in traffic.

The being able to easily keep up with traffic is what I miss when I switch to my regular bike, which I had been comuting with for years.

Also I ride it more than my traditional bike because it is easier. (I rode to work today) Parking is easier too though I’m still a little nervous leaving it on the street (I have bike cages at home/work)

I’ll second your recommendation of giving it a try.

I've considered doing this; my concern is the windchill. How do you manage that?

I commute with a regular bike and proper clothing is your friend. It's also not rocket science. You get pretty warm through the movement so often it's okay to just wear something that stops the wind.

I usually wear regular clothing (like jeans and hoodie) and add to it when necessary (long johns in the winter, maybe a power-stretch jacket).

For me my fingers and face are the part that suffers most. Beause you are working out you do warm up.

Its only about 35-40 minutes for me so I can be a little lighter on the clothing. A balaclava for my face (Its a a ski mask with an big circular opening for my nose and eyes). Thats usually enough, but I have a thin hat that fits under the helmet. my work shirts are golf shirts and wick sweat away, but wool or polypro long underwear is helpful when its really really cold. You don't want to get wet from sweat, because it will suck the heat out of you. I usually just use normal pants. I have a flease jacket and a windproof shell on top.

I use wool glove liners and good windproof gloves. My hands can still get cold. Especially when its windy along the river. I'm experimenting with usb li-on glove warmers, which seem to help on the two times I've used them. They're kind bulky in my gloves and I don't love that.

(I've seen people with fixed hand warmers on there bikes but I haven't gone that far). Ski googles too (I wear glasses so that helps the wind in my eye problem).

Good socks too. I lower my seat in the winter to make it easier to touch ground if I hit ice.

My experience is that it's most important to keep your ears, hands, and torso warm, which I achieve with a windbreaker vest or jacket depending on how cold it is. Even if I'm a bit chilly when I leave, I'm certain to be warm when I arrive at my destination -- sometimes a bit too warm, but not nearly as sweaty as I would be if I were riding a regular bike instead of an e-bike.

I switched to an electric moped for daily commuting around Vienna, and it is a dream. I will never go back to internal combustion engine-based transportation.

Its just a much nicer platform, all-electric. I see it getting much, much wider adoption ..

If you're commuting with cars, there is no sense in which the air you are breathing is "fresh"

You are right about that. I'm hoping eventually this will become popular enough that cities will open more dedicated bike paths separate from traffic. I've even heard rumors of our city closing and dedicating the main street downtown for bikes and pedestrians.

I would also add that Santa Barbara generally has some of the most delicious air i've experienced in a place that still has restaurants, stores, jobs, etc. It surely gets worse with proximity-to and volume-of car traffic but overall the air quality here vs. other places i've lived is noteworthy[0]. (0: except when there's fires.)

> except when there's fires

Which is a given in the winter :(

San Francisco recently voted to shut down the main downtown road (Market St.) to private cars. I think taxis and buses will still be allowed, but otherwise it'll only be bikes!

In some sense this is true—I like to believe the benefits of exercise outweigh the increased exposure to air pollution. However, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that bicyclists are often breathing deeply next to traffic that can, in some cases, be putting out a lot of bad stuff.

I knew some researchers who were specifically looking at the question of bicyclist exposure to air pollution by pedaling around town with nephalometers (IIRC). I don’t remember what their conclusions were, if any. I should look that up.

Also, driving in a car doesn't protect you from air pollution. Cars suck in polluted air from the car ahead and concentrate it around the driver and passengers. You're actually less exposed to pollution cycling the same route.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896971...

Here's a video about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySzmo_sScQk The message was that yes, city cyclists are inhaling polluted air. But the benefits from the exercise cycling gives you far outweighs the negatives.

But most of the time, you're not commuting with cars, because you can take ways through woods or river beds, etc. that are open to bikes but closed to cars.

I’d agree with that but you’re still better off than people sitting in their cars in a line of traffic.

https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/fuming-air-pollution-and-c...

That's true with any transport that runs on the roads. Your car isn't filtering much.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com