Electric cars

[mongers]

Yakie, your shameless social media influencing has planted a seed in my head.  How much did you say those rigs go for, like 2 grand?

Electric bikes?

[Sheilbh]

But isn't the point that part of the reason we're here and cities look like they do is because of a series of decisions that have been taken since 1939 - so changing the urban fabric and way people live is down to the sets of decisions we make and not some inevitable state of nature.

I see it at least with American YIMBYs with, for example, the huge opposition that any density at all seems to provoke even though there is clearly enough demand for it.

[Admiral Yi]

Electric bikes?

Si

[Savonarola]

But isn't the point that part of the reason we're here and cities look like they do is because of a series of decisions that have been taken since 1939 - so changing the urban fabric and way people live is down to the sets of decisions we make and not some inevitable state of nature.

Yes, of course, but that's not something that can happen quickly.  We need a much shorter term solution to global warming; something that is going to have to account for the urban fabric as it exists today.  In much of North America that will have to be electric vehicles.

I see it at least with American YIMBYs with, for example, the huge opposition that any density at all seems to provoke even though there is clearly enough demand for it.

What are YIMBYs?

[Sheilbh]

Yes, of course, but that's not something that can happen quickly.  We need a much shorter term solution to global warming; something that is going to have to account for the urban fabric as it exists today.  In much of North America that will have to be electric vehicles.

Sure but I think that's a wider piece around how we want our cities to be and what makes them liveable etc. And obviouslyvastly improved public transport should be part of it too.

What are YIMBYs?

Yes in my back yard. People who are generally pro-development and pro-density.

[mongers]

Electric bikes?

Si

It's complicated, seem more akin to buying a vehicle than a bike so Jacob/CC/Liep/Mal would have the best advice here; I have nothing.

[Admiral Yi]

Thanks for sharing mongers. 

[Jacob]

Yakie, your shameless social media influencing has planted a seed in my head.  How much did you say those rigs go for, like 2 grand?

There's a fair bit of range depending on what you want, but you should be able to get a very reasonable electric bike for US$ 2,000 I think.

[Admiral Yi]

And you just plug into a wall outlet at home?

[Jacob]

And you just plug into a wall outlet at home?

Yup. You typically take the battery off the bike and plug it into whatever outlet you have handy.

[Admiral Yi]

How easy to steal?

[crazy canuck]

How easy to steal?

You would have to get by Jacob's dog and then deal with his wife, so I would not advise the attempt.

[DGuller]

One thing that keeps me from thinking about biking is the danger factor, it just seems so dangerous to me, at least on American streets.  However, I was curious whether statistics bear that out, so I googled around a little bit.  I came across a site of someone claiming that biking wasn't that dangerous at all, but later it turned out the author of that site was killed in a biking accident. 

[Jacob]

How easy to steal?

You would have to get by Jacob's dog and then deal with his wife, so I would not advise the attempt.

[Jacob]

How easy to steal?

Basically as easy as a bike. I have a pretty hefty fuck-off lock, but my main strategy is to not leave it unattended in insecure places. Vancouver has a lot of bike theft, so I'm pretty paranoid. I had someone come into my back yard and steal two (luckily quite cheap) bikes out of our bike shed (that I'd forgotten to lock) five-six years ago. And since e-bikes are expensive, they're attractive targets... though I guess they're not that much use without an appropriate recharger, so I don't know how that figures into the theft rates.

But yeah, strategizing about how safe it is to leave them at your destination is something that probably should figure into your feasibility analysis.