Not sure about the UK, but here in the US, you could buy an ebike for every day of the week for the price of a mediocre car that will still require a few thousand dollars of work over the time that you own it. Guess who doesn’t have money? Young people!
Ebike $2000 x 7 = $14000 An average used car is way more than $14k
If you rarely go further than 15 miles from home and it’s safe and reasonably temperate where you live, you are throwing money out the window by not using a bike or ebike. And cars keep getting bigger, heavier, and more expensive.
My ebike has probably kept 5-10 thousand miles off my car and city miles cause worse wear than highway miles.
The other nice thing with ebikes is that they can actually haul a ton of heavy stuff for you up hills. 35c day while going up a treeless hill? No problem. It makes getting groceries stupidly easy, even if your city is blessed with insanely steep hills.
It’s also great for places with little parking, like beaches or parks. I accidentally did a 70km day on an ebikes because they are so insanely efficient. And I still had just under half a charge, amazingly.
E-Bike Positive says more young adults aged 25-34 are planning to travel by ebike over cars or public transport, with nearly half saying they’re more likely to buy an ebike than they were a year ago.
Some other stats in the article, but this is the answer to the headline click bait.
Interestingly, and probably because the UK are assholes towards e-scooters, but in Canada, I’m seeing a lot more people riding e-scooters this past year.
The growth in e-scooters is probably larger than with e-bikes around here!
Municipalities should incentivize, and promote, these devices to more people. Yes, with an education piece, too.
Protected bile lanes are all they need from municipalities. My city has leaned into some protected lanes for bikes in its downtown core, and scooters are heavily used there.
A safe path where they can travel 15-20mph along with normal bikes will heavily incentivise use. Everything else will coke along with that.
Protected bile lanes are all they need from municipalities.
We’ve had municipalities around here REMOVE protected bike lanes… anything to make car drivers feel safe, right? /s
