Government proposal to double ebike power has received a mixed reception with brands questioning what it will mean for the UK bike industry
Government proposal to double ebike power has received a mixed reception with brands questioning what it will mean for the UK bike industry
That’s wild. City speed limits here are between 55km/h and 70km/h here.
I’ve always wondered what the commuting use case for these bikes were since they can’t keep up with traffic here. I guess now I know lol.
Why do you need to keep up with traffic?
So you don’t present a road hazard? Same reason you can’t just bicycle down the middle lane of a highway, or why minimum speed limits exist.
Here bikes are fairly common on fairly big 1 or 2 lane rural-ish roads that are around 70 km/h.
Lots of drivers get annoyed but other than that I don’t think accidents are particularly common.
In the city the traffic is often slower. Bikes are also often separated by at least a line on the road, ideally trees. Bikers can also often bike on the smaller interior roads that are one lane or even one way one lane.
Suburban environments often have completely separated bike/walk paths.
Bikes aren’t a road hazard for cars. The opposite is true though. Fortunately cars often go slightly into the oncoming car lane and/or slow down when there are bikes.
Ah, we don’t have bike lanes here, pretty much at all. That probably explains it.
Having rural roads at 70km/h is also weird to me. Ours are 90-135km/h, depending on whether there are curves, poorly maintained sections, etc. Most are 105km/h or 120km/h.
We do have plenty of city streets at 70km/h, but nobody rides on them. Like I said, no bike lanes, people will throw things at you if you try.
What I consider to be rural or country roads can be around 70-90.
Here are images of what I consider to be rural/country roads:
This is a pretty common sight during the summer half of the year:
Another common sight is drivers complaining about them.
In my city there’s a large portion where we don’t even have sidewalks or crosswalks. You have to risk your life to cross the street without a car or motorcycle.
My city doesn’t have them most places either. Its kind of okay though, because we have massive block zoning, and nobody is walking 8km in 38C weather for a kebab.
Sucks if you’re poor though. My partner literally pays more for their car than everything else combined, because they are disabled and cannot work. The car is like $700 and their rent + groceries is $600.
Wow. That’s really cheap for rent though. Is that average where you are?
No, they live in an old houseboat parked on some guy’s back patio. My rent and utilities on a 1br is $1100 in the same part of town, and average here is probably $1300 to $1700, depending on neighborhood.