Power to the Riders!

Novembre 3, 2009 | Eco Friendly, Eco News, Eco Opportunity, Electricity, Environment, Pollution

A lot has been appearing in the blogosphere and traditional news media about electric bicycles. Long a transportation staple in China, India and the Far East, they have recently been gaining traction in the US market. Most of the articles written about this ultimate green vehicle have been slanted as something "new", "odd", or "trendy". This is unfortunate because it indicates that the product has not come anywhere close to being accepted as a genuine transportation alternative and given the honest assessment it deserves.

Until this product is seen as a genuine alternative to the automobile or noisy polluting gas scooter for short range transportation, it will never be given the serious political consideration it deserves. While bicycles, electric or otherwise require little in the way of infrastructure to be used successfully, they do require some assistance from the political establishment to encourage their use. Such encouragements are bike lanes, public bike racks, the ability to take bikes on public transportation and special bicycle right of way laws. Usually the argument against these encouragements go something like; "people don’t really ride bicycles to work around here". This is not the chicken and egg situation that at first glance it appears to be. Ask the riders and they will usually respond that they would like to ride to work but a given city is not "friendly" to bicycle riders.

If we intend to get serious about reducing air pollution, global warming, our trade deficit, and dependence upon foreign energy sources as well as improving the quality of life in our cities, then we have to get serious about encouraging the use of alternative transportation. The electric bicycle, clean, quite, no fumes and small footprint could be a genuine player in this arena but in this country, it is going to require some assistance from the powers that be. Actively encouraging the use of the electric bicycle isn’t very sexy and doesn’t have the cachet of heavy rail and trolley service. It also doesn’t require anywhere near either the investment and lead time in order to be accomplished. For a very small investment of the already allocated "stimulus" funds, bike lanes can be demarcated, racks put up, and incentives put in place to encourage this low impact form of transportation and it can be done in a matter of months not decades.

For every electric bike being used on the streets, one car is not. Ten or twelve bikes can be parked in the space used by one automobile. Less traffic means fewer road repairs and funds that can then be allocated to other priorities. Less air pollution means less respiratory illness which means lower medical costs and lost productivity. Less gasoline purchased means less money being funneled to dictators and terrorists who want to kill us which increases our security costs. Less petroleum burned means less carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere. Fewer cars being used results in fewer accidents which reduces the cost of insurance. And all of this helps encourage the type of future development in our cities and towns that allows them to become more hospitable, friendly and healthy places to in which to live.

http://www.worldwideelectricbikes.com

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Ph.: chokol8

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