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Comment by sempron64 | Hacker News Reader

You know that before cars people used horses, which are wildly more inefficient than a car, and disgusting en masse, to the point where there were concerns in the 1800s that London streets would be entirely rivers of horse manure. Bring back the beasts of burden! An ass for every home!

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Modern bicycles on modern roads have better range and are far faster than horses. The problem in 1800s London was that bicycles weren't invented yet and the roads weren't asphalt. Vulcanization was only invented in 1839. The Pony Express for example averaged to 10 miles per hour and had stations every couple of miles.

I'd prefer a 4 wheeled electric horse, even if it was limited to 20mph.

At least chariots keep people dry during Winter, and not soaked in sweat during Summer.

Consumer demand is the only reason why we don't have many bicycle models on the market that keep the rider dry. You don't sweat on an electric bike.

Or golf carts. If cities would allow them on the streets, they would be a great way to start transitioning away from cars.

Try not to sweat on a electric bike when the average temperature is 35 degrees Celsius, on average.

You sweat only from thinking about moving out of the shade.

Electric bicycle are poor alternative to e-motorbikes, and even the wind at 120 km/h does little help regarding warm weather.

When was the last time you rode an electric bike in summer? Unless humidity is also very high I find it much more pleasant than just walking. You can't compare it to riding a motorcycle because you're not clad in leather from head to toe.

Most southern countries in Europe people aren't clad in leather when driving motorbikes, the most crazy ones might even only have a bathing suit as clothes when going around the traditional Summer vacation regions.

How is it possible that people drive motorbikes in southern countries when it's literally torture to be outside in warm weather?

People need to move regardless of the weather conditions, so they pick what makes it comfortable to do so.

Avoiding sweat is not a good reason to keep people in 5,000lb mobile air conditioners. There are plenty of hot cities where the majority commutes by walking or non-air-conditioned trains.

Some of each because they lack the means of having an option.

Hearing what you are saying, and asking myself which has closer form-factor to a horse: a car, or an e-bike?

Also, your (valid!) point that a horse is "wildly more inefficient than a car", how does a car stack up to an ebike, in daily use, in total lifecycle (including disposal), and in land usage?

No they really didn't. Horses were for cargo, people in a hurry, and rich people.

For the most part people walked or more recently used a train or trolley. Now we have bicycles and it turns out if you don't spend trillions designing your towns and cities for the benefit of the auto industry you can get where you're going on a bike or train faster than if you do and use a car because you don't have to spread everything out.

I'm no expert on 1800s London, but I'd expect the average person couldn't afford to own a horse and instead walked everywhere.

How many horses per person at that time? How did that compare to cars, nowadays?

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