this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025

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micromobility - Bikes, scooters, boards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility

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Ebikes, bicycles, scooters, skateboards, longboards, eboards, motorcycles, skates, unicycles, heelies, or an office chair: Whatever floats your goat, this is all things micromobility!

"Transportation using lightweight vehicles such as bicycles or scooters, especially electric ones that may be borrowed as part of a self-service rental program in which people rent vehicles for short-term use within a town or city.

micromobility is seen as a potential solution to moving people more efficiently around cities"

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Where Are All The Cheap E-Bikes? - Jalopnik (www.jalopnik.com)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago (2 children)

The speed, too, is a safety issue. Studies show that differences in speed between vehicles sharing a road are a statistical cause of crashes, and many of New York's streets are shared between bikes and cars. A bike that can do the 25-mph speed limit is safer than one that can't.

The future of personal mobility shouldn't be autonomous EVs, it should be e-bikes. E-bikes that are lightweight, that don't spew tire microplastics into the environment, that require little power to move a person from point A to point B.

This is the sort of safe, common-sense stuff that should be a boilerplate on every article.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Actual infrastructure dedicated for bicycles and other mobility options would nearly eliminate the "speed difference" issue in most cases.

A nearby city is ripping up one side of their main street and finally putting a physical barrier between the cars and the bikes.

Before it was just a painted line that got completely ignored, then it was the occasional traffic cone which kept getting stolen, then they tried those plastic bollards that are just hollow plastic, which just got run over.

It only took 3 deaths that I know of and countless children being injured.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

It's great for cities that have the budget and manpower to build protected bike lanes everywhere. But even the North American cities that are at the forefront of bike infrastructure are still decades away from having a system competent enough to remove 50% or more of cars and car roads from their cities. :/

Until the time when most cities and small towns are safely bikable, I see class III speeds being the only rapid bandaid on a complex and unfortunately, quite political problem in both Canadian and American cities.

In the meantime, we will fight NIMBYS tooth and nail for every square meter of bike lane, boneheaded decisions from city governments, and federal governments complete resistance to funding major continental projects like HSR, or anything that doesn't remotely rely on cars. I just wish we had the time, but we really don't, with climate deadlines getting awfully close.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The article is not correct. Tires wear off on ebikes just the same.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Spew is probably the qualifier there, referring to how the amount of particles is tied to vehicle weight (similar to road wear). A heavy e-bike probably sheds more than other bikes, but also probably still significantly less than even the average truck (to the point bike vs ebike is probably negligible in most cases).

Well, also even a fat-tire ebike has a significantly smaller contact patch than most cars (edit: perhaps even smaller when compared to one car tire).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You ignore two other important factors that affect tire wear. Tread and compound. When you take a look at a soft compound mtb downhill tire with aggressive tread, you will notice it will wear down extremely quick, way faster than a road car tire.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Are loads of people using mtb downhill tires (on roads?), or something with a better formulation and less aggressive tread? Longer-lasting tires is a clear incentive.

Knobby tires on a truck/jeep to fetch groceries seems like the same issue but worse. Though either way, IIRC this is a bigger issue when tires are brand-new.

I think you are underestimating how much power/friction is going into that much rubber on vehicles that are thousands of pounds empty and can go 50mph+ and the braking force needed too (which also creates dust). It's an entirely different scale, especially oversized trucks and semitrucks.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago

$1,000 gets you a Lectric XPress e-bike, possibly the cheapest option that meets all my city criteria. If you want a more established brand

I'm pretty sure Lectric is one of the biggest e-bike brands in the US by number of sales. How much more "established" can you get?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

Funny thing is I've been thinking $1,500 isn't a bad price for an alterative mode is transportation that isn't a second car. I've even seen options that go over 750 watts of power, but those are classified as mopeds in my area, need to be licensed, and cannot use bike paths. An actual, classifiable electric bicycle does seem weirdly hard to find.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

This article is spot on.

Agree wholeheartedly.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That's interesting. I paid a bit over a grand (a lot of money, sure) for what amounts to a full-on scooter with pedals. Seemed amazingly good value to me! For information, I'm not in the USA and the e-bike comes from a certain large hegemonic Asian country.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

I only paid $950 for my Ride1up Portola. There's offerings for around $1000 still.