Cycling to work is nice. But if you are young, sitting all day in a warm office.
Think of blue collar workers that are hungry, exhausted and also people getting older.
Its fucking annoying to wait for the bus that does not show up, the stupid beeps whenever the doors open and the slow movement in general.
Lucky i am at home in half an hour, laws now require you to commute to work in up to 1.5hrs if you cant afford a car or should use public transportation.
Electric bikes are no solution, the minerals and energy must be produced to transport people like me.
I will buy a motor driven classic Vespa, fuel consumption is 2l for 80 mls and i am at home without dispruption and waiting.
Plus i got a new nice hobby to maintain it.
No new vehicle was produced, no rare earth was needed.
Fuel is produced every day for the plastics of the EV and for many other things like pharmacy and so on.
No new bike needed to be shipped from china where all that stuff is made.
Sure you are right with vegan biking, but not all folks can do it.
If you like repairing the vintage Vespa, great project and that sounds fun. That’s worth a lot!
But I will curse at the stink of the exhaust from the crappy old motor when you ride by. Try an e-bike (you can get one built more locally surely), or an e-Vespa (or hell, make that your project to convert the vintage Vespa into a silent sleeper Vespa with crazy performance!). Electric is so, so much more fun.
Worrying about that small amount of “critical minerals” needed for a bike/Vespa is a conspiracy to distract you from the fact that oil is also extracted and has negative externalities, we just live with those already.
Not all folks can do it, but here in Oakland there are plenty of folks who could do it if we had better paths, but don’t because the roads are very dangerous for bikes and we have poor bike paths. This means we can get more people on bikes. Also I’m in favor of changing more than just bike paths - we could improve housing affordability so that people don’t have a 1.5 hour commute to their work. Also I have three bikes that are 15 years old. Buying a used bike uses even less resources than a used Vespa. I do have a newer ebike though. They’re really nice when you have more stuff to carry or longer distances to travel!
There aren't many jobs that physically exhaust you to the point of not being able to walk (biking is no harder than walking). Especially since leg muscles are super hard to tire out.
> people getting older
Pretty much the same as above. If anything, the elderly prefer biking to walking, it's easier on the joints.
> Its fucking annoying to wait for the bus that does not show up
Less or more annoying than waiting when your car breaks down?
> Electric bikes are no solution, the minerals and energy must be produced to transport people like me.
Right, manufacturing a 30kg bike has costs, unlike manufacturing a 1500kg car.
> No new vehicle was produced, no rare earth was needed.
That's not how the economy works. Also, buying used is better than buying new if everything else is equal (it's not in this case), but whatever vehicle you bought was produced at some point.
> Fuel is produced every day for the plastics of the EV and for many other things like pharmacy and so on.
Er, what? I guess you think your vehicle is made out of grass and runs on water or something?
> Sure you are right with vegan biking, but not all folks can do it.
Not all folks can do it, so let's stick with 99% of people using cars to get around :)
