After commuting fully by bicycle on Tuesday, yesterday I took the extra genteel choice by driving to the closest commuter rail station:
Touring on this trend saves me no time over the subway, and certainly I nonetheless should take the subway to Brooklyn as soon as I get to Grand Central. Nevertheless, I do get to take pleasure in comfortable seats and a nice river view for awhile:
And the quick and pretty bucolic trip to and from the station is a pleasant little bonus:
Driving all the best way to Brooklyn takes me significantly longer than both the subway or the premium subway/commuter rail combo, which is why I’m not doing it repeatedly. I might after all shut or erase that hole fully purchase using a type of new electrically-assisted bicycles everyone’s speaking about, however I simply can’t convey myself to do it. I imply, I completely get whereas different folks do it (I bought handed by in all probability tons of of them on Tuesday), and objectively it makes excellent sense. Nevertheless, all of us have our turn-ons and turn-offs in relation to how we get round, and if I’m going to trip to work I wish to do it on a bicycle that excites me and never an equipment. In any other case I’d quite simply take the prepare the place I can learn and never fear concerning the climate.
I’ll additionally admit that e-bikes annoy me. Principally that is simply me being petty, however I do suppose that they combine much more poorly with pedestrians than common bicycles do (folks on common bikes a minimum of cease for pedestrians often), and I additionally suppose they combine poorly on bike lanes and paths with common bikes. At instances, as somebody who rides common bikes solely, I even discover myself considering we should always take away e-bikes from the combo fully, earlier than they take away us, which is the place issues appear to be going. Nevertheless, as I’ve identified earlier than, in relation to transportation, at no level within the historical past of humankind have we collectively opted for the slower choice that requires extra bodily effort. It’s silly to not reconcile ourselves to this, in order a pragmatist I’m not about to affix an anti-e-bike rally or something like that:
Behold, the “majority:”
Granted, the turnout would recommend in any other case:
However one ought to by no means underestimate the ability of a dozen:
Andrew Cuomo actually isn’t:
Based on the article, e-bikes “triggered 75% of bicycle-related deaths:”
This sound scary till you contemplate that we don’t actually know the full share of bicyclists who’re driving e-bikes now. E-bikes weren’t even a factor when town began constructing bike lanes in earnest, and now they’re ubiquitous. So after all they may proceed to comprise a better and better share of complete bicycle deaths till our old-timey pedal-powered bikes appear as antiquated because the pennyfarthing.
On the identical time, I’m keen to imagine that e-bikes are meaningfully extra harmful, as a result of because the Citi Bike fleet grew to become more and more electrified and quicker, deaths appeared to extend. Right here’s an excerpt from a column I wrote for Exterior that I’m unsure they ever revealed as a result of they appear to be imploding:
…previous to 2023 Citi Bike deaths had been exceedingly uncommon. Once I reached out to Citi Biki by way of social media, they instructed me that the corporate makes a lot of its information public, however what they despatched me doesn’t appear to incorporate info relating to fatalities. Once I adopted as much as ask about deadly crashes, they replied, “We’re unable to supply the figures you’re requesting.”
Nevertheless, as a biking New Yorker who pays shut consideration to information reviews of the deaths of different cyclists, I can distinctly recall 5 previous to 2023. The primary Citi Bike demise occurred in 2017, 4 years after this system’s launch in 2013. Furthermore, whereas all these 5 pre-2023 deaths have been tragic, it’s value noting two occurred underneath extraordinary circumstances: one was among the many victims of the 2017 truck terrorist assault, and one other was in 2021 when the sufferer was driving on a motorized vehicle freeway within the early morning hours for unknown causes.
Once more, I need to stress I’m counting on reminiscence and Web analysis right here, but when my numbers are right, that’s 5 Citi Bike deaths throughout a span of 9 years—adopted by 4 deaths in 2023 alone, together with comic Kenny DeForest, who died in an obvious solo e-Citi Bike crash.
So what modified? Properly, Citi Bike journeys have elevated five-fold because the program debuted, which might actually be an element. Moreover, the rise in ridership was notably steep between 2022 and 2023.
However 2022 was additionally the 12 months Citi Bike launched the most recent electrical bikes, which reached pedal-assisted speeds of as much as 20mph. As Time Out famous on the launch, “the additional jolt of energy we bought once we peddled [sic] was stunning.” And all 4 of the Citi Bike riders who died in 2023 have been driving electrical bicycles.
Once more, perhaps meaningless as a result of deaths elevated together with a rise in ridership, however ridership has been rising steadily because the program started, so perhaps not.
And in New York Metropolis, e-bikes are simply part of the large proliferation of small motorized autos typically. For years now, old style motor scooters (or what Streetsblog likes to name “mopeds”) have been plaguing the bike lanes, however now their riders can lastly use the roadway on the Queensboro Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge:
This may create “a extra accessible and linked metropolis whereas sustaining security for all highway customers:”
Wait. So if you happen to have been driving a gas-powered motor scooter, which is mainly a bikes and has at all times required registration and a license plate, you weren’t allowed to trip them within the roadway? Actually???
That may’t be proper, can it?
In the meantime, out within the nation, apparently persons are simply driving e-bikes into the wilderness and stranding themselves:
She needed to push her bike for 20 miles earlier than she was discovered:
Maybe somebody ought to invent a bicycle and not using a battery that may be ridden for 20 miles.
Nah, it’ll by no means catch on.
