Originally Posted by
Maelochs
Also, most of us are in shape for a long ride, or a ride carrying a big load of groceries. Most of us ride bikes.
(Snip)
Add to that the weather---which in a lot of the country requires expensive gear to survive through a portion of the year (Try riding in New England or Wisconsin or any where in the top northern third of the nation in the winter without studded tires and Really good weather gear.)
You haven't looked at many of my posts, have you? I have been a year round cycle commuter in CALGARY - which is considerably farther north than your examples - for over a decade. And I wasn't in good shape when I started - I hadn't been on a bike in ten years. But there was a bus strike, and I could not afford a car - more on that in a minute - and I just figured stuff out. People can do that. I bought my winter clothing a bit at a time, and saved up for my studded tires, and made do.
Then I rode a little further each day, and carried a bit more, and became stronger.... right up until a couple of invisible disabilities bit me in the ass, hence e-bike, but that is a long story.
Originally Posted by
Maelochs
Yes, the car costs more to operate---but that is not an issue. if a person can afford a beater car or n e-bike---generally the beater car can be had for less. Add the first insurance payment---poor people don't pay the whole year up front---and the car allows the person to keep going to work to pay for the car. And the car allows the person to go to the store, to take the kids to day care, to operate in any weather---and the car works when the body doesn't.
Here you HAVE to pay a year's insurance up front, and it's a couple of thousand, unless you can qualify for monthly payments, which I don't because I haven't had car insurance in this province before.
And I disagree vehemently with your "that is not an issue", but I have no idea where to even start, because it seems we are coming at this from totally opposing worldviews. To me, purchasing a car makes no sense whatsoever if I literally DO NOT HAVE the budget required to run it. I've been offered cars for free and have turned them down, because when I have $300 left out of my monthly pay after rent and (minimal) utilities, as has been the case for most of my life, I am using that to buy a bus pass ($100) and food; or I am going to use my bike and buy slightly more food, as well as clothing/equipment for said bicycle.
Do not tell me that can't be done, because that is my actual lived experience.
i was responding to the question of the thread, which was about e-bikes and being car free. I have not owned a car in 12 years and I do own an e-bike, which I believe qualifies me to chime in.
I work in a store which sells and services e-bikes, so I have had a lot of conversations with people who are thinking about going car-free or car-light, many of whom are not cyclists. (They also aren't people living in poverty, and I will absolutely concede that those are not going to be the same conversations, but that wasn't the question, I don't think). The people I am talking to are considering cycling as a viable transportation option *because* of the the availability of e-bikes.