>> It's interesting how people can read the same article and
>> draw completely opposite conclusions: "The point of the
>> article is exactly that these machines for the first time
>> stand to take drivers off the road, not cyclists."
=v= He then wrote, "In places like China and India, it's how
they can bypass the car culture in which we in America are
caught." Here's the article's wording:
| They are replacing traditional bikes and motorcycles at a
| rapid clip and, in many cases, allowing people to put off
| the switch to cars.
The wider context hasn't been mentioned but it is crucial
to the discussion: China is on a construction binge, racing
against peak oil to get as much built as possible while it
seems affordable. This has included more roads for cars, and
though this is but a fraction of what the U.S. has going, they
have very quickly run into the major problems that are inherent
to car transportation. China has now just as quickly made moves
to *limit* cars.
=v= So the "put off the switch to cars" wording is more than
a little bit presumptuous and misleading. All that matters
is the material facts in the first half of the sentence: real
bikes are being replaced with polluting gadgets (and motorcycles
are being replaced with gadgets that pollute differently).
>> As I and at least one other person read it, these things are
>> more likely to get bicyclists out of exercise than cars off
>> the road.
> But most people who ride bikes do so because they like to
> ride bikes (or because they're really poor -- and those
> people can't afford an electric bike). So I don't think
> these electric-assisted bikes will cause many bikers to go
> over to the dark side.
=v= Again, in the U.S., sales and marketing for these gadgets
are aimed directly at bicyclists. If the goal is to replace
car use, they're going after the wrong market, and have been
for decades. I do think there's some use for these things.
Anecdotes about folks in their 80s (in the _Times_ article
and in this thread) suggest a use that nobody's objecting to.
My concern is different.
<_Jym_>
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