Any problem solved.

[Richard.Hattersley]

Hi, I have just converted and classic mountain bike, 1993 Marin Bear Valley, with a mid drive. Joy at many levels. I believe electric bikes are the answers to most of society issues, transport, exercise, depression, road safety etc. The transformation will need encourage and care but the answer is clear.

 

[Nealh]

Sadly 98/99% of the population will not or simply won't reugularly use a bicycle for local or leisure use on a daily or weekly use, once it gets wet or cold any bike owned is put in the garage and lucky to see use again. For those people an electric bike is of little use and likely to be an expensive toy given battery prices.

 

[egroover]

While I agree that 98/99% of the population will not consider using a bike as a means of daily transport/commuting, those that do do so much more easily on an ebike over a normal bike, especially in the winter. I can vouch for that, daily commute to work for about 5 years now in all weathers.
We just haven't woken up and aligned with other countries in Europe. I was blown away by the sheer number of people on ebikes commuting to work or riding for leisure in Belgium on a tour in the summer

 

[guerney]

Sadly 98/99% of the population will not or simply won't reugularly use a bicycle for local or leisure use ona daily or weekly use, once it gets wet or cold any bike owned is put in the garage and lucky to see use again. For those people an electric bike is of little use and likely to be an expensive toy given battery prices.

While I agree that 98/99% of the population will not consider using a bike as a means of daily transport/commuting, those that do do so much more easily on an ebike over a normal bike, especially in the winter. I can vouch for that, daily commute to work for about 5 years now in all weathers.

Is it really 98/99% ? It's got to be a bit less than that, surely?

2021, approximately 6.5 million people cycled to work

Cycling participation England 2023 | Statista

How many people cycle in England? In 2022-23, participation levels fell to nearly 7.4 million.

www.statista.com

Only 13.1% of adults cycled at least once a month in the year to November 2021 – the lowest recorded rate since the survey began in 2015-16.

Number of people cycling in England falls a year after £2bn plan

Only 13.1% of adults cycled at least once a month in year to November 2021 – lowest rate since survey began

www.theguardian.com

 

[Nealh]

All year round riding, one has to be hard core/dedicated rider or have no other transport use.
Flecc is pretty clued up to usage so may be he can add more light, not just ebike but all types of cycling. Where I live I see rarely more then 1 or 2 others on a bike.

 

[guerney]

My back of cigarette packet calculation which resulted in a 2.7% higher death rate of cyclist vs motor vehicle occupant was based (I think) on 6.5 million cycling ie 10.34% of the UK population. If cyclists only make up 1 or 2 % of the UK population, cycling death rate looks far more concerning. Here are the death stats if anyone else fancies a quick calc:

Reported road casualties in Great Britain: pedal cycle factsheet, 2020

www.gov.uk

 

[flecc]

My back of cigarette packet calculation which resulted in a 2.7% higher death rate of cyclist vs motor vehicle occupant was based (I think) on 6.5 million cycling ie 10.34% of the UK population. If cyclists only make up 1 or 2 % of the UK population, cycling death rate looks far more concerning. Here are the death stats if anyone else fancies a quick calc:

Reported road casualties in Great Britain: pedal cycle factsheet, 2020

www.gov.uk

Don't trust government cycling figures. Because they are heavily promoting cycling, they distort the stats as a propaganda weapon to make cycling appear far more safe and attractive than it really is.

Here's an illustration using their lie that 6.5 million cycle. Yes 6.5 million, 10% of the population, may indeed own a bike, but most only get them out of the garage and pump the tyres for the odd fine weather trips.

So using the government figure as propaganda gospel I can show that cycling is the safest of all on the roads with these rounded annual numbers:

1.27 motorcyclists, 330 deaths. 1 death in 3800 m/cyclists

32.9 million cars, 682 occupant deaths, 1 death in 48,000 cars.

6.5 million cyclists, 111 deaths, 1 death in 59,000 cyclists.

Cycling looks very safe doesn't it, even safer than riding in a car.

The real truth is very different. London's compactness and GLC research enable us to have some better figures. We have some 330,000 whole journey commuting by bike daily, making us number two only to Cambridge. That's 3.3% of our London population,

So if we assume that 3.3% of rest of the country does the same, that last line from above looks like this:

2.24 million cyclists, 111 deaths, 1 death in 20,000 cyclists.

Suddenly three times the deaths!

London actually betters that due to the huge numbers of cyclists in such a small space creating more safety. But the rest of the country isn't close to the London cycle commuting levels so their true figure will be far worse.

That real last line figure is probably around 1 death per 15,000 cyclists nationally, making cycling second only to motorcycling's death levels, albeit nowhere near as bad.
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