Why do you or why don't you use an ebike for your commute?
I live in a city where public transportation is overcrowded, there's constant vehicle traffic, and you can't depend on any commute time for a given day or hour. The average temperature is very high, so walking is a sweaty affair.
The only way I've found to make this city more usable is with an ebike and scooter. It's like the perfect vehicle for these conditions.
However, many people reject the technology and either choose their car or other forms of getting around.
Is it because it's not well understood, or seems too expensive?
I'm curious what sold you on the technology or what is the reason you're not making the leap.
I don't think it would be safe to take an ebike down the stairs from my bedroom to my home office.
Haha, fair enough. Do you go to the grocery store or out to restaurants? What do you use to get to those types of places?
I have a family of 4 and tend to only eat out rarely and most often as a group. We drive a car there. For groceries we tend to take our van since we go every other week and it's hard to fit all the groceries in the car's trunk. The store is only 4 miles away, so in theory you could make several trips with a bike, but it's not very practical.
Sadly, public transportation is non existent in my area, and we get snow and ice in the winter. I'm excited for a future where electric vans become affordable so we can ditch our ICE vehicles.
Here's the problem-
I have to ride through my subdivision. Not that big a deal.
Down a road with no shoulder. Getting to be a bigger deal.
Down a four-lane highway. Getting to be a super big deal.
Then through an industrial park that semis constantly drive through, also without a shoulder. Pretty fucking stupid to bike there.
Oh, and none of this is within city limits.
One day I hope to work from home the whole time instead of a half-and-half hybrid schedule, but until then, any sort of bike isn't practical. I do have a hybrid and my commute is only 10 minutes long, so it's not a huge impact, but I'm not going anywhere bike-friendly except my subdivision.
Do you think the major problem with adoption is the infrastructure?
Definitely, but you can't expect infrastructure like you have in a city that you do outside city limits where both I live and where I work is. At some point, you just can't expect the money to be spent on that sort of infrastructure. I absolutely believe cities should move to be as carless and pedestrian and bike-friendly as possible, but you're not going to see that on county roads or rural stretches of highway.
I totally agree with this, micromobility isn't meant for 5+ miles/kilometers as that's the domain of larger vehicles that can handle speed.
Can I ask why you don't live in micromobility range and how that decision might be impacted of the cost of a car were eliminated?
Again, the place I work is not inside city limits. It's in a rural industrial park. Even if I moved to city limits, it still wouldn't be practical for me to bike to work because it doesn't solve many of the problems and create new ones. You might as well ask why I don't just get a different job. Which is getting to be unreasonable.
Fair enough, it doesn't seem like your stuation is one that micromobility attempts to address.
When I was much younger I lived at a place about an hours drive away from my work a decided that I'd rather pay more to live in a smaller place, closer to the workplace and regain almost 10 hours of my week. It was worth it to me. But I know it's a matter of preference and ability as I didn't need a larger home at the time.
Now that I'm in a city center (of a huge city, metro area more than 10 million people) for similar reasons, micromobility is a natural fit.
Comfort. Commute is always miserable, I'd at least like to do it sitting down, in air conditioning.
Time/distance. Even if it helps bypass traffic inside the city center, it doesn't help with the first part of the commute which is getting to the city. Am I supposed to pay for parking at the city edge and take a bike the rest of way? Rather than use the spot my employer provides for free? Strictly speaking, the distance to the city edge isn't so far as to make biking impractical for me, but whatever else it saves, it definitely won't save time.
Transporting things other than myself. Oftentimes I'm moving other things to and from work besides myself, and often times it's more than what can fit in a bag. Not a universal concern, but it is for me.
I live outside the range of where the local ebike rental service distributes them. Moreover, you can't exactly count on them being when and where you may need them. That obviously unique to the rental services, though.
Weather. Should be self explanatory but I don't want to worry about rain, and doing this in winter is out of the question, at least around here.
Last, and this goes for any type of transportation other than my car, at the end of the day, the idea of getting on the bike to get home feels exhausting. Like, I can muster the energy to do it in the morning, but after work? Knowing that I have to make that ride home after a hard day rather than just sit in my car and chill is not appealing.
While I own a car and do drive it to work more this time of year when there is often snow on the roads where I am, I definitely prefer the ebike commute for a host of reasons.
First off, I'm cheap. Driving costs in terms of fuel and maintenance tend to add up. Transit would, in theory, be less expensive if I didn't already own a car. But if you exclude the sunken cost of purchase + other unavoidable expenses like insurance, the operational costs of driving work out lower per month than a transit pass according to my calculations.
But now consider an ebike. It's operational costs are pretty close to zero. The purchase cost may seem high compared to a regular bike, but if it's replacing car or transit trips, it will pay for itself in short order. In time, you may find that you're keeping your car longer before replacing it since you're not racking up a lot of mileage from commutes. In that case, it's a total windfall on your budget. You're saving thousands!
There are other considerations. I was not sure about the exercise aspect since it is a motor-assisted bike, but I've been losing weight since I got it. About a pound a month, so very slowly, but it adds up. I've had the bike for around 3 years now and I'm no longer in the type 2 diabetic range.
In terms of the actual experience of commuting by ebike, it was a bit intimidating at first as I basically ran the same route I had been driving with people passing me all the time. But then I studied the map and realized I can cut through parks, trails, and residential streets and it's quite pleasant. I actually enjoy my commute now which is something I never did in the car or on the bus. ebikes are particularly nice because you can follow hilly routes or ravine trails without breaking a sweat, and that can expand your options. A little more distance is not the end of the world either.
Finally, I find commutes are consistent in the time they take. Cars can get stuck in traffic. Regular bikes can slow right down when you're battling a head wind. I know my commute will always be about 25 min by ebike.
I don't ride because I'd 100% get killed by someone's jacked up diesel truck in the first month. At least on a motorocycle I can avoid the situation.