Electric Bicycles in China
Electric bikes are thriving in China. They're also being attacked by industry competitors, including the auto industry and government mass transit officials, who fear erosion of their customer base. Some interesting quotes from the article:
[Consumers prefer electric bicycles over public transit] when it comes to health concerns: the overcrowded transit system is feared for its potential to spread disease. Liu says Crown's sales spiked during the SARS epidemic that emerged in China in the spring of 2003.
And:
The biggest challenge facing electric-bike makers [...] may be the roads. China is following the development path of Western countries like a map, rapidly redesigning its cities around the automobile. Across China, cities are rejecting a mixed-use model and redeveloping along a strict zoning model [...] The automobile is king in this model, because in the absence of extensive public transit, cars are the only way to get from distant suburbs to offices and industry parks.
So, as cycling advocates and and proponents of good urban planning, where does the electric bike fit in? In the wonderful New York of our dreams where automobiles are more appropriately restricted, and the rights of pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users are properly enshrined, should the electric bike have a similar right to the road as a human-powered one?
Sorry for two links to Spectrum articles in a row, btw. It tends to be a business- and technology-cheerleader type of a rag (from my perspective, at least), but it's interesting when you've actually got some business and technology types starting to fight with each other, and when you can see some of the cultural and environmental transitions highlighted (highlit?) by changing technology.
Hi again, Great comments.
Submitted by Jean (not verified) on Thu, 2005-06-09 02:31.
Hi again,
Great comments. Sadly, so far I have only really noticed diesel powered bikes which are really popular and zippy in Shanghai and Xi'an. My dad says two big problems with EBs are the battery life being too short and it takes too long to charge so it hasn't really reached its potential. There hasn't been adequate investment to improve the technology because I feel like those issues don't seem too impossible to solve. The lure of the auto is powerful and irresistable. the way peds, cyclists and motorists share the road right now is pretty scary but in a way the car has not been given full reign over the road. people who walk and cycle here make it hard for people who drive because they refuse to get out of the way. btw, in Xi'an, all the taxis are powered by natural gas but there are way too many of them. I'll keep an eye out for electric bikes when I go out next.
I think the biggest deterent
Submitted by Mickey (not verified) on Mon, 2005-06-06 09:46.
I think the biggest deterent to bicycle use is the cars! In Atlanta it's positively dangerous to ride on the streets as you ex-Atlantans surely know. Until there are a substantial number of bicycles on the roads and bicycle lanes everywhere you might want to go, it's not going to happen. Electric bikes certainly appeal to me in hilly Atlanta with less than stellar physique, but the thought of riding on Ponce or Moreland just isn't encouraging. And of course Atlantans think you have to drive everywhere, even 2 blocks to the grocery store. In NYC at least people walk 2 blocks!
Electric Bicycles are certain
Electric Bicycles are certainly one part of a responsible and sensible transit system for urban environments and should be accomodated for. Really the problem here is that nothing is accomodate for except for the automobile.
Interestingly China seems to be both absorbing the worst aspects of our urban development as well as (out of sheer necessity) offering the best hope for rethinking our development models.
I think in our idealized NYC environment, these EBs could easily share the road with conventional bicycles, the question is what else does it have to share the road with. In dense urban environments there is little need for private large automobiles, in fact the car has been designed for such generalized conditions that it rarely offers a true transportation solution that optimizes cost, fuel efficiency, emissions, public health and infrastructure.
It would make more sense to have a variety of options available (which NYC starts to address with buses, subways, taxis, some bike access) but to really take it a step further. For short distances take a walk
For slightly farther distances take a bicycle. For more than that take an electric bike or scooter if you have two people. If you can't find a convienent bus or subway to take, you can hail a cab, but taxis don't need to be so large. If you're solo take a 2 seater. If you have luggage get one with a trunk. If you're in a large group take a minivan cab. Think about how many large yellow cabs are cruising around with one passanger.
I think a trick to this is reducing the incentives for private ownership of automobiles, or conversely increasing the incentives for sharing of transportation resources. For example I can look at a bike-sharing program available in Denmark where there are public bikes available to be used at many locations. Pick one up here, drop it off there. Someone else will use it.
Or even look at ZipCar in NYC, share a car and only use it when you need it. Would car owners feel as compelled to drive if they hadn't made the financial investment for private ownership or there were real alternatives available?
I imagine you could have electric bikes available for public use as well, pick one up here, drop one off there.
Really all of our transportation resources are underutilized and automobile infrastructure overbuilt due to private ownership. I imagine parking could be reduced significantly because vehicles would be in use most of the time instead of waiting around for the hour or two a day a private owner would use it.
One interesting note from the article on the bike-sharing:
"The City Bikes are extremely well used. Politiken followed a City Bike for 12 hours and found that it spent only eight minutes not in use."
Ok, I admit i'm getting a little off topic here, and that my utopian transportation fantasy faces some cultural and logistical barriers. I'm convinced though we've accepted our automobile-centric urban environment because we've been led this way by an industry driven by economic concerns rather than social, environmental and public health concerns.
One last analogy that popped into my head regarding underutilized private resources is the SETI Home project which you're probably familiar with that borrows home PC's computing power when not in use by the owner to put to public benefit.
I'm sure there are plenty of other examples that we could point out.
One last comment on this long post, my uncle in Colorado actually tried to start a business about 10 years ago developing electric bicycles. He was actually working in collaboration with a company in China which would do the manufacturing. I know that he had no success in his venture to market them in the US, but I wonder whatever happened to the Chinese side of it... Probably doing well!