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I swear just last year I was hearing about how Europeans didn't like ebikes, glad to hear I was wrong.
The convenience of an ebike is honestly unbelievable. Steep hills become minor inconveniences and longer trips lose their sting. I live in a fairly bikable city and I really hope ebikes have some sort of explosion in the next few years. They are already pretty common but I think a lot of people would ditch public transportation/driving if they realized how convenient and fun ebikes are, especially in the summer months.
I've seen the utility of an ebike in my hilly sprawling US suburbia. I can only imagine those benefits would be 10x greater in an area with better urban design. I imagine this would open up huge swaths of land to non drivers when combined with good trains and possibly flatter terrain. Too bad euro ebikes are extremely speed regulated. :-(
If you want motorbike speeds, get a motorbike with motorbike suspension and brakes etc and appropriate equipment. And ride on routes appropriate to those speeds.
Really, nobody needs to be going faster than 28mph downtown, anyways. The only vehicles that should be going that fast or faster downtown are BRTs, trams, and light+ heavy rail. 18-20 mph is what we should be aiming for for cars, just like we do for active school zones and construction zones. Speed humps and narrow roads to force cars to slow down. That minimizes pedestrian deaths and injuries, and pushes people towards public transit and biking/ebiking.
Agreed, and mode segregated networks so car traffic occurs on a few primary circulators while other streets receive mostly last mile traffic.