Will e-bikes ever enjoy mainstream popularity in the UK?

Patrick

Esteemed Pedelecer
Feb 9, 2009
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Yes exactly Flecc...thats why we have to try harder to push to get this done in as many cases as possible.
But there are very few cases in which this would be possible unless you tunnelled to make an underground cycle network, built flyovers for an over head network or banned motor vehicles from roads in built up areas. There’s a very good reason why major cities have underground rail systems, having two completely independent transport networks on the same level is just not possible.

Yes, a completely car free cycle network would be safer then shared use roads, but so would a traffic free foot network, should we also be campaigning for footbridges on every street so that pedestrians don’t need to mix with traffic when they cross the road?

If the driving culture doesn’t change then there is no practical improvement to the infrastructure that would make cycling into a mode of transport that is perceived as being safe, on the other hand if the driving culture did change so that road users generally treated each other with respect then that would make cycling feel sufficiently safe.

Without the change in culture pushing for dedicated cycle routes risks reinforcing the feeling that cyclists should stick to cycle paths (it’s strange that the people that think that don’t also feel that motor vehicle should be limited to motorways). As things stand if you want to make cycling safer then your best bet would be to push for a change in the attitudes of all road users even though that would be much harder to achieve. The problematic defeatist attitude is thinking “that’s just how people are” and pushing for an improvement in infrastructure instead of trying to tackle the root of the problem.
 
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eddieo

Banned
Jul 7, 2008
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cloud cuckoo land....while its a great idea to change vehicle drivers attitudes, it is not going to happen anytime soon..Changing the law to Dutch model (strict liability) the only way anything will change. But that is not going to happen either as UK attitude to cycling is abysmal....

pedestrians are reasonably respectful of one and other because they have eye contact and are in physical proximity..Car drivers? I mean its like flicking a switch. Personality change almost immediate

Then there is the attitude of some cyclists towards pedestrians also..No wonder we get a bad name.
 

funkylyn

Esteemed Pedelecer
Feb 22, 2011
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South Shields, Tyne & Wear
Garry......please sit down in a darkened room.........

I have to say that I agree with eddieo........bloody hell......Im off for a lie down too.....:confused:

Lynda :)
 

Scimitar

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jul 31, 2010
1,772
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Ireland
Just as an aside to this discussion.. how many e-bike owners would object to the idea of paying a lower rate of road tax (i.e. £30-£50 a year) and perhaps having bikes registered if they use the roads, if the government pledged to improve the infrastructure for cyclists and/or raise public safety awareness for cyclists using our roads?
No matter what inducement the government offered, it will be a cold day in hell before I pay a penny road tax of any guise to use my bicycle on the road.
 

Scimitar

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jul 31, 2010
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Ireland
Not defeatist, more realist. The problem I posted in my last post can only be solved with bulldozers, and no number of celebrities will persuade any governments to start compulsory purchasing and bulldozing of peoples homes and businesses. In our car culture country, they'd get lynched.
Ahem... Olympic Village and stadium complex, East London.
Plenty of noses out of joint there, and I didn't like the roughshod way the locals were over-ridden, one bit.
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
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A lot of it was wasteland though, plus low grade industrial land. Add the fact that it was in the eastern side of London and the social realities of that made the abuse of the locals interests easy. These factors are precisely why it was built there!

Trying that in the middle class areas would never succeed, and Britain is a majority middle class country.
 

flecc

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Oct 25, 2006
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Im sure there are plenty of places that dont need bulldozers to solve the problem......just need to have the will to find the way.....and start with the easy ones....

Lynda :)
There are Lynda, and many have been used. But using these bits results in the short disjointed cycle paths that everyone complains about.

None of them result in complete point to point journeys though, the problem I'm repeatedly highlighting and which doesn't seem to be understood.
 

funkylyn

Esteemed Pedelecer
Feb 22, 2011
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There are Lynda, and many have been used. But using these bits results in the short disjointed cycle paths that everyone complains about.

None of them result in complete point to point journeys though, the problem I'm repeatedly highlighting and which doesn't seem to be understood.
You misunderstand me Flecc......I am actually talking about the short bits needed to JOIN UP existing traffic free routes, not indiscriminate short bits around the country lulling us all into a false sense of security mistakenly thinking we are in a traffic free utopia........only to come to a swift halt at the next 6 lane motorised hell :mad:

Lynda :)
 

flecc

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Oct 25, 2006
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You misunderstand me Flecc......I am actually talking about the short bits needed to JOIN UP existing traffic free routes,

Lynda :)
But that's the bits that need the bulldozer Lynda! It's precisely why they aren't joined up now and it's what I've been talking about all along.

Everywhere there are any number of examples where existing infrastructures interrupt sections of well intentioned good cyclepaths. Only compulsory purchasing and extensive bulldozing of homes and commercial properties can appreciably improve on the present situation, and no national or local government dares in our car-loving, anti-cycling country.

Even I wouldn't support such a program since it puts a tiny minority before the much greater majority interest.

Much easier in the countryside of course, but that doesn't help the 86% of the population who live in towns and cities, who mainly ride in them, and would still struggle with traffic and narrow roads to reach any new countryside facilities.
 

funkylyn

Esteemed Pedelecer
Feb 22, 2011
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Yes...I do realise that flecc I am merely commenting that 'some' places will not need a bulldozer and they should be joined up.
I can think of a few in my area alone that only need the will....not the bulldozer....to get them joined up.

So they could start with those...simples :D

Lynda :)
 

morphix

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 24, 2010
2,163
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Worcestershire
www.cyclecharge.org.uk
I can see Kitchenman coming up with some clever idea to prevent motorists getting too close.. I imagine it would be like some coke bottles on rods extending two feet either side of his rack with some flags on them or a little sign that reads "if you can read this, you're too f'kin close"
 

timidtom

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 19, 2009
757
175
Cheshire
GambiaGOES.blogspot.com
Lack of standardization is the e-bike's downfall. During the time we've been riding our e-bikes we must have had hundreds of interested people inspecting them and offered dozens of test rides. Interest is rapidly lost when we answer questions about batteries. The cost, the lack of standardization/competition and the time taken to charge all act as dis-incentives. If Ford cars could only run on Q8 petrol, available at only one garage and it would take 6 hour to refill a tank - we'd still be galloping about on horses.
Sorry - it's raining and my battrey's flat!
 

Ajax

Esteemed Pedelecer
Feb 2, 2008
316
31

E-bikes make more sense than EVs, so why do EVs get all the attention – and subsidies?



I’m in the e-bike business, (founder of justebikes.co.uk)

At the moment, it seems government support for e-bikes mainly consists of not getting in the way. Which is helpful. But is it enough? The government’s own climate advisers say it needs 1.7m electric cars on the road by 2020 to meet emissions reductions targets. At this rate, that looks pretty unlikely, even according to EV industry optimists. The climate advisers have next to nothing to say about e-bikes.

This is a copy of latest article on James FitzGerald's blog CLEANAIRMILES.COM
If the 'powers that be' wanted to see electric vehicles at the fore of the publics consciousness, i'm pretty sure they could make it so.

'They' would simply have to insist on our dramas including some reference to electric transport. This would be one of those subtle top down directive which program producers and commissioners etc, would pass on to their production staff. In time it would become another of those defacto ideas to inform our collective consciousness.

As it is, you are left to ask who benefits from e-bikes? Young people are presummed fit enough not to need e-bike assistance, whilst the the middle age, on bicycles seems tainted by its connections to the immature. Cycling at your age? The petrol head, goes hand in hand with our ideas of Maturity and success and achievement. Let's face it, the ecological angle is the last thing on people's minds, simply because there is no such argument in the public arena.

Maybe it comes down to product placement, and then the question is how do you make the point that its electric? I would say its precisely because electric vehicles are indistinguishable from mainstream, that they aren't part of the latest fads.
 

jackhandy

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 20, 2012
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Making ebikes "Stealthy" - not looking as if they Are ebikes, has to be contraproductive to making them popular, surely.

I can see the point for those who want to do 20 or 30mph without pedalling (not wanting to get nicked), but for those of us who just want a bit of a shove up the bum on gradients & be generally within spitting distance of legality, maybe we should make it obvious we're on an electric bike.
:cool:
There are next-to-none ebikes where I live & I've been shouted at for riding mine on shared-use trails, until I have explained the legality of doing so & made plain that I ride with a reasonable level of respect for walkers & their dogs.
Unfortunately, some dogs don't like the motor whine, so I tend to freewheel past the more excitable specimens:
This all helps spread the word about what ebikes do & don't do, but will all be undone the first time someone goes howling past with their feet on the handlebars
 

flecc

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Oct 25, 2006
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One thing that could greatly increase the popularity of cycling and e-biking is beyond our control of course.

I'm speaking of that feature of the almost forgotten past, long UK summers with blue skies and sunshine.

"Summers" like this one just departed are a killer for cycling popularity but ideal for the motor trade, reinforcing all of Britains preferences and prejudices.
 

jazper53

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 20, 2012
890
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Brighton
One thing that could greatly increase the popularity of cycling and e-biking is beyond our control of course.

I'm speaking of that feature of the almost forgotten past, long UK summers with blue skies and sunshine.

"Summers" like this one just departed are a killer for cycling popularity but ideal for the motor trade, reinforcing all of Britains preferences and prejudices.
Global warming a E-Bike Killer? Or maybe the lack of sunspot activity which is also regarded in some scientific thinking as having a effect on our present climate, in which we could be heading for a mini ice age, and nothing to do with the present economic climate?

ps E-powered sledges might be the future
 
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flecc

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Oct 25, 2006
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Certainly doesn't seem to be the economy. As I said above, bad weather is ideal for the motor trade and in evidence of that is the fact that car sales have held up much better in Britain than in other countries (reported on the news in the last 48 hours). The money has obviously been there for car buying, far more than is necessary to buy e-bikes.

And of course bad weather is disadvantageous to public transport as well. Do I want to wait at a bus stop in winter and then hang around a cold and windy bus/tram interchange point when I could be warm and comfortable in my car? You bet I don't!
 

jazper53

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 20, 2012
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Brighton
Certainly doesn't seem to be the economy. As I said above, bad weather is ideal for the motor trade and in evidence of that is the fact that car sales have held up much better in Britain than in other countries (reported on the news in the last 48 hours). The money has obviously been there for car buying, far more than is necessary to buy e-bikes.

And of course bad weather is disadvantageous to public transport as well. Do I want to wait at a bus stop in winter and then hang around a cold and windy bus/tram interchange point when I could be warm and comfortable in my car? You bet I don't!
Car sales may be up from previous all time lows. It is also said that most of these sales are financed on HP, increasing further debt in this country.
 

flecc

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Oct 25, 2006
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Car sales may be up from previous all time lows. It is also said that most of these sales are financed on HP, increasing further debt in this country.
But the deposits alone can more than cover the cost of a very good e-bike, so the point I made remains valid.