The Car-Replacement Bicycle (the bakfiets)

I didn't watch the whole thing, but did she mention electric bikes? IMO, Electric cars, or cars in general, are just fine. We just did a family road-trip around Denmark with our Ioniq 5 and it's absolutely perfect for that. The thing is, we should be renting them when we need them, and use bikes more the rest of the time. Electric bikes are quickly becoming a viable alternative to cars in many bike-friendly cities, and we're seeing an explosion in the choices of electric cargo bikes. Not Just Bikes has an excellent new video on this: [VIDEO] I rode my electric bike to work today in fact. Instead of our EV, ironically. But our family uses only one car at least. We don't necessarily need simpler cars, we need better electric bikes. Or electric motorbikes/scooters. And better public transportation. Something like this would be a nice option for some usecases: [LINK] GetAround is making renting cars more viable too. We do actually have a second car now, but I've been renting the old one out until we're ready to sell it and until we're sure we can handle two kids in kindergarten without it. It's been way more popular than I anticipated.

I suggest you watch this video[1] by the awesome channel "Not Just Bikes". Bakfiets are a dutch cargo bike you can literally use for 99% of all your errands. People in a city do not need personal cars. And even Cargo bikes are only useful for 10-20% of occasions, depending on if you have big shopping tours or kids. For the 1 or 2 occasions a year where a car is needed, car sharing is the way to go. [1]: [VIDEO]

I had my mind blown about Dutch-style cargo ebikes, bakfietsen . The cool thing is that you can use the bikes to haul cargo, or put three kids in the front in special harnesses when you need to: [VIDEO]

I think the recent electric scooter boom and subsequent pushback by communities shows that: - There is (IMHO huge ) pent-up demand for last-mile style electric transportation: scooters, bicycles, etc. - The electric drive technology is starting to reach a point where it can support a whole new space of designs that make this sort of transportation appealing to a wide variety of users (i.e. not just fit young adventurous people; the elderly, young children, etc.) - Sadly, infrastructure, laws, and social norms move way too slowly and are the limiting factor for what could be a major quality-of-life improvement for many many people. Note that "EV's that are half the width of a normal car lane ... probably less than $10k." is a pretty good description for the electric cargo bikes that are already starting to emerge. I would love to see cities and towns adapt faster to accommodate things like this: The Car-Replacement Bicycle (the bakfiets) [VIDEO] How to Transport Kids by eBike [LINK] This American Mayor is Creating the Ultimate Biking City [LINK]

> a two-wheeled cargo bikes are much easier to cycle than three-wheeled cargo bikes. See video "The Car-Replacement Bicycle (the bakfiets)" * [VIDEO] * [LINK]

The process is a feedback loop though. People drive because everything is so spread out. The corner stores die because people don't walk past anymore. Rinse and repeat. Electric cargo bikes are the last bastion of hope here. [VIDEO]

> - might be impossible depending on work or children; For the latter, perhaps see "The Car-Replacement Bicycle (the bakfiets)": * [VIDEO] > - weather might make the ride unpleasant; I live in Toronto, Canada, and in the Before Times I cycled everday between ~April and December, rain or shine. The simplest solution is to just always have bad weather gear: it's like and doesn't take up much volume. Having it in a pannier means you always have it and don't have to think about it. The simplest solution for rain is a poncho, though I went with jackets and rain pants. I found the threat of rain is more of an obstacle that actual rain. If your commute is <40 minutes, odds are pretty good it won't actually rain during your ride. It's the possibility of it that tends discourage people, in which case some gear works to counter it. That said, if you ride >80% of the time when the weather isn't too bad that's still a good improvement over not riding at all.

> Or you might need to carry kids. Or carry shopping/parcels [VIDEO] There is a huge misunderstanding in what bikes are trying to achieve. No sane one is suggesting you use a bike for a 50 mile work commute. The criticism is against giant SUVs and pickup trucks for in-city travel. You dont need to burn 2 gallons of fuel to carry a gallon of milk and dozen eggs from 2 miles away. A cargo bike like in the video above is sufficient. Most cars have 1 passenger in them currently. How do I know that? Because HoV lanes are always empty.