In the US, 6%. Non-issue. 3x people do not have a license (16%). Far more people are prohibited from driving for reasons like OUI or nonpayment of citations and such.
> An expensive ebike is potentially an attractive nuisance that could get stolen
Car theft in low-income neighborhoods is a huge problem and police don't care. A bicycle is a fraction of the replacement cost and is much easier to secure. You can't bring a car into your apartment, nor can you stash a car in the corner of your shop at your job.
Also, many renter's insurance policies will either cover a bike by default or they can be added for a cheap rider....far cheaper than the cost of car insurance.
It also doesn't have to be an e-bike...$500 gets you a really nice single-speed transportation bike that costs next to nothing and is easy to stash somewhere safe. Do you seriously not realize that such bikes are a staple of service workers and students in a lot of cities?
> He's doing what he can do to make a difference rather than making excuses and saying "We really ought to fix the infrastructure...but..."
That is a personal attack. It's not appropriate here.
You want to go to Alabama and implement your ideas? Cool. Otherwise, I think it's inappropriate to dismiss the work he chooses to do and assume you, as an outsider, have better armchair solutions.
I grew up in Georgia in a city on the Alabama border. I'm extremely poor and have lived without a car for over a decade.
Insurance for your apartment is not something extremely poor people necessarily have.
Someone very comfortably well-off and living in a bike-oriented locale talked on HN about not wanting to leave their ebike locked up too long in a public place (for fear of it being stolen).* So that's part of where that thought comes from.
I gave up my car while living in Georgia. There were few sidewalks and it was an hour walk to work.
There was a bus stop near my apartment and a bus stop near my job but there was no bus connecting the two. It would have taken more time to take the bus than to walk it.
People who have no actual experience living within the system thinking they can fix fundamental structural societal problems with money is the essence of a savior complex.
If you don't understand the lived experiences of others you have no lever with which to move their world. You can swing your ideological stick all you want to but nothing is gonna happen but tiring yourself out.
First, solve their political problems, their financial problems, their health problems, their access to education problems, their ignorance problems and their self-proclaimed exceptionalism problems.
Once you have done that, then build them to a point where they can engage with their own history from a higher psychological standpoint and THEN you can throw money at the ecological consequences of their transportation issues.
If you do this out of order, you will either have your money appropriated into various contractors and government officials hands or you will find all of your precious ebikes either for sale on ebay within a year or rusting on the side of the road.
In the US, 6%. Non-issue. 3x people do not have a license (16%). Far more people are prohibited from driving for reasons like OUI or nonpayment of citations and such.
> An expensive ebike is potentially an attractive nuisance that could get stolen
Car theft in low-income neighborhoods is a huge problem and police don't care. A bicycle is a fraction of the replacement cost and is much easier to secure. You can't bring a car into your apartment, nor can you stash a car in the corner of your shop at your job.
Also, many renter's insurance policies will either cover a bike by default or they can be added for a cheap rider....far cheaper than the cost of car insurance.
It also doesn't have to be an e-bike...$500 gets you a really nice single-speed transportation bike that costs next to nothing and is easy to stash somewhere safe. Do you seriously not realize that such bikes are a staple of service workers and students in a lot of cities?
> He's doing what he can do to make a difference rather than making excuses and saying "We really ought to fix the infrastructure...but..."
Nobody is "making excuses" here except you.