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‘This doesn’t make sense. How much shopping can you really carry on a bicycle?’
(www.brisbanetimes.com.au)
this post was submitted on 18 May 2024
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Not really the focus in this article, but the speeds that ebikes can hit now have significantly shrunk the time cost of riding versus driving. Which is such an important development for the cities designed and built after the mass rollout of cars.
They're legally capped at 25 km/h, even if the technology exists to make them faster than that. It's a big speed boost up hill, but makes no difference down hill and it's roughly equal (or even a negative for strong cyclists) on the flat.
I don't think speed is really the right thing to look at when talking about the advantage of ebikes. Instead, it's the ability to travel with less physical effort, especially when going on hilly routes or carrying larger loads.
(And as a minor side note, I really wish we used the 20 mph speed cap used in places that still use mediaeval measurements. 32 km/h is still a very safe speed, but would be noticeably faster.)
Imagine we had the infrastructure to let people get around at 45km/h on a cargo bike
@tombruzzo @Zagorath We do, they're called footpaths! /s