Bluebikes to add electric bicycles

Agree on safety. I hope the electric assist is very speed limited.

Ebikes are very heavy and can really zip (I'm an owner) and in the hands of an amateur they are dangerous to the rider and others. MUCH more dangerous than electric foot scooters, which I think is a much more reasonable option than ebikes for casual city rentals.

Lyft is not going to go bankrupt because of ebikes. They burn billions of dollars a year in their primary business of losing money on ride share. This will continue until investors finally realize they'll never be a profitable company, or Lyft sells of their municipal bike business. Given the relatively fixed costs of contracts and per-unit expenses, I'd wager that running bike shares is actually easier on Lyft than ride sharing.

Despite ebikes being heavier than their non-e counterparts, the Lyft bikes have upgraded to hydraulic disc brakes to help manage the stopping. These brakes are good enough to keep heavy people like myself safe while hurtling down mountains, and I promise they'll be good enough for stopping these bikes. Furthermore, the bikes are speed-limited to 20 mph, so they will only go a few MPH faster than the average rider is used to at max speed. I don't forsee any of this being a serious problem.

Where will the first fire be?

They are so popular that most cities switch entirely to them after a few years. (And they are more profitable to their owners.) The popularity of Blue Bikes showed that motors aren't actually needed.

I'm sad that eMopeds are quickly replacing real bikes. Yes, they allow some people to be mobile in ways they couldn't before and that's good. But for the most part, it's just reinforcing the commonly held view that anything which moves people needs to have a motor even if the device would be fine without one.

Bikes are awesome because they extend human ability with simple mechanics. No motor needed to magically triple ones maximum speed.

It was bicycle riders who insisted on better streets a century ago. Those improvements quickly became exclusively for the automobile once they became affordable to the masses. I see the same story being repeated for bike lanes and mopeds.

To argue against mopeds is akin to yelling at clouds so I won't try to block anything. But it's still more proof we're in the dumbest of timelines. We have this amazing contraption that suddenly needs 10lb of toxic materials so that people can go slightly faster or with less effort.

They are replacing car miles. Summary article: https://electricbikereport.com/research-finds-ebiking-replaces-car-trips...

Go out in the world a bit - there are a lot of people for whom the ebike is a huge game changer, from the cargo bike folks hauling families and stuff to people using them as an alternative to calling cabs in places without other transport options. They can make a 10 mile commute possible rather than daunting and sweaty, and lower barriers to cycling for routine errands for many people. I saw a lot of the small-wheeled, sturdy, knobby tire kind in rural areas of MA, VT, NY, and NH hauling a lot of groceries and getting people around who would otherwise not be able to bike that 3 miles into town and back over the hill and/or can't afford a car.

Referenced report link: http://ppms.trec.pdx.edu/media/project_files/NITC_RR_1041_North_American...

Through analysis it became evident that e-bikes are making it possible for more people to ride a bicycle, many of whom are incapable of riding a standard bicycle or don’t feel safe doing so. Additionally, the electric assist of the e-bike helps to generate more trips, longer trips and different types of bicycle trips. These findings are represented by the
high value attributed to being able to avoid or tackle hills easier, ride farther and faster with less effort, and being able to carry more cargo or children when needed.

quite pricey for non-members at $10.45 per 30-minute ride

A person cycling from Watertown Center can get to South Station for $10.45 cycling a respectable ~16mph in less than 30min.

An Uber or Lyft for that same trip may save time (but how’s traffic?) but costs between $21-54 dollars not including tip. The trip would take between 13min to 47min depending on traffic.

The MBTA’s 504 Express Bus claims it can get you there in 29 minutes for $4.25 but takes the Pike and is subject to single occupancy vehicle traffic as there’s no bus lane. This bus is meant for commuters and has a crummy schedule that claims to run every 15-45 minutes. But varying schedule and the T’s shaky reliability are also factors to consider.

In doing these calculations, the ebike considerably cheaper than a ride share and more convenient than the T. The ebike may also be fun? The bulk of the mileage done via bike would have you riding the beautiful Charles River Parkway with only a few road crossings. I was surprised how well the T delivers in this scenario at least on paper.

Read this post FIRST!