My problem with e-bikes is my problem with regular bikes. Riding on the sidewalk is generally not permitted and I don't trust drivers in cars to not murder me while driving in the street.
I have considered just walking slowly in random lanes of traffic while in downtown areas recently. On what grounds do you need thousands of acres of space? Speed limits should often be 4-5mph and space usage should be shared.
>> I don't want to be brutally killed by a car on unsafe infrastructure
>> Oh yeah? Well how are you going to have a refrigerator delivered or get your sick grandmother to the hospital?
I'm not sure why. Maybe it's just hyper-logical thinking that it has to be all-or-nothing and implemented solely by force. But man, grandmothers and refrigerators are going to be just fine if we stop giving cars priority over people. Maybe better.
Now suppose we take all or majority of Manhattan's roads, let pedestrians in, and only allow buses, trucks, and utility vehicles. Suddenly buses are much slower than they are now, because the pedestrians have the right of the way.
My general theory has become "the harder it is to drive, the better." Turns out we give cars way more leeway than is even legal, like here people will wait to let them finish a right turn they no longer are legally allowed to do (no right turn on red here). Or in a tiny alley, everyone will scooch out of the way if a car shows up. Why? If a tremendously huge person showed up and was is no emergency or particular rush, but just blasted airhorns in people's faces so he could get by a little faster, why would we all do so? Screw that guy lmao you came to a walking area you can go at walking speed like the rest of us. Take the mrt next time.
We just had lantern festival where there were lines of cars snaking out of the city for the few parking lots we have, all of which filled up in the first hour of course. So now just a bunch of cars idling around with nowhere to go. Thought about getting a sign and carrying it around that says "you'd already be here if you took the MRT."
I can't be sure of the exact mechanisms or whether I'm observing behavior correctly, but a strategy that seemed to be shaking out in SF is cyclists aggressively standing up for our rights, by for example one person blocking cars from making illegal rights while the rest of the bicyclists rode along, or by repeatedly asking people parked in the bike lane to move along.
Again I can't be sure about mechanism of action all I know is that over the course of five years, bicycling in the sf area transformed from a battleground to a relatively easy ride full of demure cars sometimes going out of their way to give right of way to bicyclists (like expecting bicyclists to run stop signs, something I personally disagree with but hey, the slower cars are going the better).
My personal strategy was to decorate myself with so many strobes I was like a rolling disco ball. You can get some pretty crazy bright bicycle lights these days. That plus the GoPro, the rearview mirror, all the shit hanging off my bike... I looked dumb as hell but also the last bicyclist on earth you'd wanna cut off.
I've just started going up on the sidewalk and dropping a foot to make it clear I'm just not going to cross...or turn if it makes sense
I guess its not as bad the mission post pandemic. seems like people are really blowing through stop signs now
After a while of doing it you realize that the risks aren't the ones you initially thought they were. I've stopped thinking "my life is in your hands stranger" every time someone passes me too closely. But I'm still hyper vigilant about the ones that pull out in front of me, presumably they tuned me out as noise because I present a relatively small image at that angle.
I take longer routes to avoid the risky spots, which is an option I'm lucky to have, and I feel relatively safe.
I'm not trying to encourage you to take my path, just giving some anecdata of what it's like.