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Comment by woevdbz | Hacker News Reader

> Most people are capable of riding a bike - especially an e-bike - to get to where they're going.

Citation needed? If I think of my own family, the ones without kids in their teens, 20s, 30s, 40s are ok, but the ones older than that, and the ones with young kids, I would not put on an ebike.

[EDIT] Not sure why the downvotes. I'm cycling a lot myself and am a big proponent of cycling. But am no longer able to make this my only means of transportation now that I have kids that are both too old to fit on a baby seat and too young to be going around town on their own. Family members that have respiratory and cardiovascular health problems cannot do sustained even moderate exercise. Populations are aging worldwide. Thus I don't really know that the statement is true and would like to learn more from actual data.

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In my city (Boulder), e-bikes are essentially banned on bike-friendly trails. A bunch of 70+ year olds are mounting a campaign to get that overturned, because they want to be out there on ebikes and access the trails like everyone else, even if their physical capabilities are a little bit lower than younger people.

Also, you can put "car seats" on many cargo bikes. You can tote around a kid safely on an ebike starting from about 1 year of age.

How many people do you suspect aren't capable of riding an e-bike? Clearly there will always be some people it doesn't work for, but that is pretty much the case for any kind of accomodation.

Would you give them a bakfiets?

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je1ThOYD8Ic

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQhzEnWCgHA

Maybe? Good luck charging one of those in an apartment building

Depends on the apartment building I think?

A lot of apartments I've looked at come with some form of lockable storage space on the ground floor.

Plenty of people in their 50's and 60's can ride regular bikes and e-bikes just make it easier. It doesn't have to work for 100% of people.

Kids below about 10 indeed fit better in a bakfiets then on their own.

You could use a golf-cart sized vehicle, max speed ~20mph, and fit right in with the flow of bike traffic. So much safer for everyone involved than a car.

Would be nice if more cities optimized for golf carts alongside bikes.

One city has, in fact: https://youtu.be/pcVGqtmd2wM

You can buy a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle today and drive it on many city streets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighborhood_Electric_Vehicle?...

There are lots of tandem like addons that work great for medium sized children - I remember using one extensively with my mother when I was around that age. People with cardiovascular issues could probably still ride a low speed ebike or electric scooter.

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