Comments by "Keri Szafir" (@KeritechElectronics) on "NYC's toxic ebike culture almost killed 4 people; let's talk about it." video.

  1. Right on the money! Good rant, and I agree though I don't know shit how things really work in NYC apart from what you say. Running red lights can be done but has to be done responsibly: check all the surroundings, check the conditions! If there's literally no traffic, go. If there's even a slight chance of collision, please, for crying out loud, wait! It's their time, respect that. Indicate your change of direction! People can't read others' minds. If you're gonna turn or stop, then stick a hand out, especially when riding fast. Oh, and riding in the streets, mind the trucks' and buses' blind zone. As for sharing space with pedestrians, again, you said it better than I would: Spiderman rule applies, physics apply, psychology applies. We, the riders, ARE stronger - with higher mass and velocity, our higher kinetic energy is way higher than pedestrians' (still just a teeny tiny fraction of cars') - which means we have more potential to do harm AND will be perceived as a threat, for a good reason. Let's do everything we can not to induce that sense of threat in others. Slow the fuck down when passing pedestrians or when visibility is not clear or there's a chance of someone going out of the building, don't take risky decisions (as in overtaking a bike with an oncoming bike at a short distance). No matter if we're talking electric kickscooters or bikes, their users ride all too fast, all too careless. I'm pulling a wild guess here as I've never ridden an electric scooter - but it's a matter of "feeling the energy". Riding a bike, one has to put their own work into accelerating, and this happens over time (same thing as you mentioned about high-powered electric bikes). Wanna go fast? You'll get tired. This teaches respect for one's own limitations, and teaches conserving energy and planning its use. On the other hand, electric scooters and fully electric bikes, as well as motorized vehicles, abstract that. Within the vehicle's limits, it accelerates and decelerates fast. This incentivizes people to use more power as there's plenty to go around. Time is money, don't waste it, go fast, you'll have more for yourself, can do more work, earn more cash, which offsets the cost of energy you have to draw from external sources (electric or fuel), though putting your own work into riding is not exactly free as you have to eat to be able to ride. Also, I'm not sure how e-bikes are regulated in the States; here in the European Union an e-bike can only have 250W and go up to 25km/h on assist, then it cuts off after breaking the speed limit. People still bypass that limit, haha. Registration of e-bikes conforming to those regulations is not mandatory, above that it'd be probably classified as moped and need to have licence plates and the rider would have a driver's licence (AM, A or B). Certain observations apply to my life in Gdansk and my 13 years of experience biking in the city every day as a basic form of transport. Bikes with assist are frequent as the city is surprisingly hilly, but since electric kick-scooter share systems have become more popular than bikes, it's mainly about those scooters. Food delivery guys are commonplace, they mainly ride mountain-ish bikes with electric assist or electric scooters (as in Vespa etc.) as the downtown is heavy with restaurants. What you said about getting as much shit done in as short time as possible applies here, the cost of living in Gdansk is one of the highest in Poland. The food delivery workers get their task via platforms such as Glovo or Uber Eats, which in itself is a crap job, it doesn't pay well. The platform/app tracks the worker and imposes limitations on route choices etc., unlike the old bike messenger thing (BTW I haven't really seen bike messengers here). You did household repairs? We've got something in common, haha! Then I got old-ish, burned out and went on fixing various stuff, mainly audio gear, here in my teeny tiny lab. BTW I'd add assist both on my Gazelle city bike and my Sorte Jernhest cargo trike. Those hills are killing me... Staying car-free (or car-as-a-service), considering a motorcycle someday cause I'm a rebel girl, haha.
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