[ndsipa_pomu]

It's not particularly relevant whether e-bikes are suitable for one person (i.e. you), but whether they are suitable for a lot of people in and around cities where the biggest issues with congestion and pollution are.

The problem is that if people only think in terms of the car form-factor, then congestion is not going to be improved and pollution from tyres is going to be almost as bad as the ICE vehicles that get replaced. Of course there's also the resource usage of cars in terms of building them and requiring lots more energy to shift them around due to their weight.

[frumper]

I replied to

>recognise that electric bikes and electric scooters solve almost all the issues with EVs

and you are coming back with that it's not relevant whether they are suitable for me, but I'm saying it's quite relevant to me. I'm also not alone as everyone I know could by an e-bike, yet almost all of them still choose to buy cars. People are voting with their dollar and it seems to be a clear decision that e-bikes aren't a solution for them.

[ndsipa_pomu]

Unfortunately, people voting with their dollars is a large part of the global climate problem. However, e-bikes are certainly becoming popular, so I don't agree with your assessment.

In the U.S. (and other countries), there's the additional issue of people being stuck with how cities/suburbs have been arranged around the use of personal cars and don't have access to functional public transport or where active transport is impractical. However, there are plenty of places that haven't made that mistake to the same extent and that allows people to have flexibility in how they choose to travel.

[frumper]

2021, 500k e-bikes sold in the US vs 15+ million cars. That's to a population that is already saturated with cars. Even looking at 2-3x growth of e-bikes over the next decade, that still doesn't sound like your assessment is accurate. Cars are still much more popular in the US and going to be in the near term future.

https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/e-bikes-are-gaining...

https://www.marklines.com/en/statistics/flash_sales/automoti...

https://www.precedenceresearch.com/e-bike-market

[ndsipa_pomu]

You're probably correct about the U.S. but that does have built in car dependence. Worldwide, e-bikes and e-scooters are a very useful additional option for a lot of people and here in Bristol, UK, I see more and more of them everyday (assuming that's not just confirmation bias).