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Comment by j_w | Hacker News Reader

Four comments and only one seems to be related to the article.

The article is about "touching on independence, mental health, social behavior, and even environmental awareness" just as much as not sitting on your butt inside.

It talks about car culture and social challenges. It recommends class 1 e-bikes so you still have to pedal (no throttle). Yes e-bikes are "cheating" the exercise of cycling, but teens aren't getting e-bikes to go cycling they are getting them to travel without asking somebody to drive them.

Throttle e-bikes are a bit of a menace in my area, but that's whatever. If more people can get outside and enjoy life that's a huge win.

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> This type of group riding brings back real-world socialization, which is especially crucial right now.

> many teens haven’t yet learned the road rules,

There are few nations in the world that respect cycling as a mode of transportation enough to legislate that cyclists are permitted to ride two abreast (I am only aware of the Netherlands). Instead, in most nations two cyclists out for a "convivial" trip together are forced to ride single file while two seat wide vehicles operated typically by a single driver in a vehicle wider than two bicycles riding abreast speed merrily by.

Let the teens ride side by side.

Where I am you can ride side by side but are supposed to single up if you are impeding traffic behind you, so that they can pass more safely.

The UK Highway Code was revised a few years ago to explicitly allow and even recommend cycling two-abreast[1].

1: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/rules-for-cycli...

Thanks for this link! I'm happy to see this spreading.

> The article is about "touching on independence, mental health, social behavior, and even environmental awareness" just as much as not sitting on your butt inside.

Teenagers in the rest of the developed world are also spending increasing amounts of time in front of screens despite not have the constraints imposed by American car culture. E-bikes might have removed one barrier, but that does solve the problem.

Kids where I live often, maybe usually, walk or take busses to school. If they pay monthly through the app they get unlimited bus travel in the county. Its not atypical in the UK, and its even easier (albeit more expensive) in big cities. We still have kids spending all their time doom scrolling.

I think it is a combination of over-protective parents and addictive stuff on their phones that is the real problem.

Ebikes are a definite menace here, and e-scooters are worse.

> It recommends class 1 e-bikes so you still have to pedal (no throttle).

Where I live, the trend is either to buy an electric motorcycle and ride it around as if it was a bike (on sidewalks, bike trails, crosswalks) or to buy a hackable e-bike and unlock the power limit and add a throttle.

The interest in real class 1 e-bikes seems minimal. The hacked e-bike and electric motorcycle people are making bike paths and trails much more dangerous for everyone.

Even the normal e-bike people have seemingly forgotten that there are rules. I had to jump out of the way of a middle aged woman who blew through a stop sign on her e-bike and turned right straight into us pedestrians. It’s common to see e-bike riders jumping between the sidewalk, road, and crosswalks as convenient and blowing through the four way stop by my house.

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