Compare that Ciao to another classic moped design, updated as electric... the eSolex:
Similar? Electrics can't compete with gas (yet) if ya want high speed and long distance non-stop travel... But this aside they offer numerous advantages? They run on almost any power source, not just hydrocarbons. They can use nuclear and coal as in Ontario today but also hydro and wind and solar... At bicycle speeds eg 32km/h without pedal assist they consume about 20Wh/km and less. Equivalent to about 17 food calories per km, so they are extremely energy efficient. And like the pedal bike they always travel with one full seat versus the motorized carriage that we often see 3/4 empty as driver plus three empty seats...
Personally I'm a big fan of the Victorian pedal bike. In over 100 years of existance it has proven itself as a human-friendly form of transport. While I don't live in Denmark or Holland or other places that we see as "bike friendly" I am thrilled to be in downtown Toronto where Statscan reports we have neighbourhoods approaching 20% bicycle use - where 20% of residents report the pedal bicycle as their primary form of transport. No accident of course with the large student populations attached to UofT and Ryerson etc...
But for Canada as a whole less than 2% report the bicycle as their primary transport. I see ebikes as a way to take some of the best features of the pedal bicycle and updating the platform to appeal to a larger demographic. Apart from it's low speed and small size and light weight, I think some of the pedal bikes best features are watt it doesn't have, which are seat belts and crush zones and air bags. Without these features I believe operators are more circumspect about their own safety and this makes the vehicle safer for the rest of us around them.
One research paper presented at a transportation convention in Ontario this year reported that once bicycle trips account for 20% of all trips the streets start getting safer for cyclists... it's about this point that the car drivers finally wake up to the fact there are cyclists all around them. So for me ebikes are just about helping to flood our streets with little two-wheelers in the push for more bike lanes and better cycling infrastructure and safer streets.
I got my first ebike ten years ago, and rode over eight years and over 20,000km around Toronto in regular commutes. But my vehicles have been foot bikes with power-assist aka adult-sized kick scooters with batteries. About 60lbs in weight and foldup. It's been interesting to see the rise of modern ebikes in Toronto in recent years. I have mixed feelings about the scooter-style ebikes. They are certainly not watt I imagined ebikes would look like. The European experience with ebikes has been very different, because of their 250W maximum and pedelec requirement. Compared to gasoline and even the food energy stored in fat the energy density of batteries is very small. EVery pedal cyclist knows lighter vehicles are more energy efficient and feature faster acceleration and faster braking, all else equal. So I believe with time Toronto ebikers will learn these lessons and a more informed market will demand lighter more "bicycle-like" ebikes... When they have the right ergonomics to be pedaled comfortably then exercise is built in as an option, and ebikers never have to suffer from "range anxiety" wondering whether they have enough charge left to get to their destination.
I know some in the "traditional" bike community have negative views about the scooter-style ebikes. They complain they are too fast or too slow or too wide or too heavy, but I haven't found any of this to be true in any sense that affects safety on our streets. And just like folks on pedal bikes, some folks riding ebikes are going to misbehave. But I believe these are still early daze... too early to be planning restrictions. It's an interesting experiment. Cut it short now and the full results might never be known.
There's a fun bit of bicycle history on the web. About the fight against pedal bicycles being permitted in Central Park in NYC, here:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwayhistory/stone_cp.cfm
Pretty amazing that in Copenhagen, a city we see as "bike friendly" it's only in the last few years they have relaxed a ban on riding bicycles in their city parks.
Cheers
LocK
