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by aziaziazi 52 days ago
> there are a large group of people dependent on their driver's license

Are there "no licence cars" in Belgium and the US ? Basically a moped motor and a seat inside a box. 45kmh and no highway, but a bit more confortable and fast than a ebike for rural environment.
2 comments
tmtvl 52 days ago
Those do exist in Belgium, but (joke starts here) that's because Belgium is enormous, far too large to get proper public transport going (joke ends). I am seeing more and more cargo e-bikes (e-cargo bikes?), which I find a positive change, though it does differ from place to place (Antwerp's fairly okay for bikes, same for Leuven, Brussels was pretty bad last time I was there).
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Avicebron 52 days ago
Not really, the cross section of people who lose their license/insurance and those that could use something like an ebike reliably for their commute is practically zilch. The US is really big and a lot of people have rural 30+ minute commutes where it snows ~6 months out of the year.
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aziaziazi 52 days ago
Oh I was’t clear: I’m not talking about an ebike but a very small and underpowered car like this one https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35210572

There’re somewhat popular here for those that doesn’t have a licence and offer some of the advantage but are less dangerous to others.

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andrepd 52 days ago
> The US is really big and a lot of people have rural 30+ minute commutes

The size of the country in which a commute is contained is immaterial to the length of that commute. What you mean is not "the US is big" but "things are really far apart in the US". Which they are, but precisely because of car-centric (car-only, actually) design.

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retired 52 days ago
Things being far apart in the US predates cars. Rail made that possible.
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jeromegv 52 days ago
Rails encouraged density around the train stations.

Rail is not responsible for the car sprawling type of communities which are mostly a 20th century phenomenon.

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