(Then, don't demonize the e-bike. It allows longer journeys by bike, makes a bike a realistic option for older and less healthy people who couldn't get around by pedal power alone, and makes it a more fun/appealing option for healthy people)
(Then, don't demonize the e-bike. It allows longer journeys by bike, makes a bike a realistic option for older and less healthy people who couldn't get around by pedal power alone, and makes it a more fun/appealing option for healthy people)
People should see e-bikes as a replacement for a car commute, not as a replacement for cycling. I still do plenty of that, but I also have get the groceries and get to work.
The right way to think about it is as a two order of magnitude reduction in the amount of battery needed to transport the same number of people compared to an EV, and without all of the other negative impacts on city life.
If we want cycling to be treated as a serious form of transport, then we need to treat bike theft almost as seriously as car theft.
(But it seems that we're going in the other direction, and allowing car theft to rise as ever-younger kids learn how to steal cars from videos on social media)
In many places (I’m most familiar with Seattle) the rate of bicycle theft is so high it has to be organized crime. I once saw (assumed “homeless”) people on Capitol Hill openly carry around bolt cutters while looking through bike racks and taking whatever they could. They had at least a dozen bike haul and it looked like the police didn’t stop them. There’s no way they are pawning off that many bikes. There are at least a handful of sophisticated fences and a real crime ring in the city targeting bikes, creating a huge incentive for addicts to steal them. And I don’t see much political will to take these down.
I don't live in Finland, but I do ride my bike for fitness in bad weather. Last weekend I got snowed on, it was actually quite fun.