I live in Europe and have never even considered getting a car. In cities the bike is the fastest mode of transport anyway, and for longer distances it's quite convenient to take the train.
Someone once said to me that he feels amputated without a bike, which really hits the nail on the head.
IMO a scooter is the best city transportation. I can pretty much get anywhere from anywhere in London in under 30 minutes. My commute from Victoria Park to Clerkenwell is 13 minutes. Google suggests 20 minutes to cycle; I reckon an athlete who ignored red lights could just about keep up, but they'd be sprinting in between the places they'd have to give way.
Electric bikes remove one major barrier people have, namely the arrive sweaty after a hill climb factor. I hear other bicyclists claim that this is less karmic because of exercise, but I view it differently. We know that, controlling for type of infrastructure, the prevalence of bicycling is strongly correlated with improved safety. The plausible explanation I subscribe to is that, with increased numbers, drivers are more accustomed to looking for bicyclists, and that bicyclists are better able to establish good group norms about how to ride safely. And of course increased numbers also mean that there is more political will to add more bicycling infrastructure, which in turn generates more bicycling. Electric assist bikes help with all aspects of this, with the exception of getting the maximum amount of exercise on every trip.
I'd love to see a business model that figures out how to 1. create a desirable electric bike brand 2. Have a low-barrier-to-entry rental or lease mode 3. Handles maintenance in a frictionless, reassuring way--perhaps with roadside emergency support 4. Has great on boarding for how to ride safely and confidently, perhaps coordinating with local bike clubs for instruction and personalized route planning.
I probably made a mistake here, but using "google", distance from Victoria Park to Clerkenwell is 3.2 miles, 5.14km. If it takes 13 minutes, the average speed is about ~24km/h. To make the same distance in 20 minutes, you can drop your average speed down to ~15.5km/h. And that is not so "high speed" for cycling.
Funny fact, I put "average biking speed" to "google" and it told me that: For cyclists in Copenhagen, the average cycling speed is 15.5 km/h.
So I guess google uses 15.5km/h to calculate the time used to move the distance by bike.
I've seen a similar trend where my brother-in-law lives outside Munich as well as some other towns where friends are.
For things like commuting, the train can make some sense, but for short trips to a market that is no longer walkable? A car may be more desirable.