This is a promotional video for the Move Can V-60 electrical crap-mobile, which can go over 30 American Freedom Miles™ Per Hour, or [?] Socialist Kilometers Per Workday*:
*[One (1) Socialist Workday ≈ One (1) American Freedom Hour™]
To demonstrate its capabilities, the company shows it in use on a woodland trail:
As well as on an urban bike path:
Yet at no point do they show it ON THE GODDAMN STREET WHERE IT BELONGS. See, we used to get how motorbikes are supposed to work–or at least the marketing people did:
Back then you met the nicest people on a Honda. But now you meet the biggest assholes on a piece of Amaz*n e-crap. I mean look at this idiot:
And this moronic machine is an affront to bicycles and motorcycles alike:
I mention this particular crap-cycle because according to Streetsblog it’s the model that killed a woman in Brooklyn recently (or, more accurately, it’s rider(s) did):
The victim was getting off a bus when she was hit:
The bike lane along Flushing shares sidewalk space with pedestrians, who must cross paths with cyclists to reach a bus stop at North Elliot Place. The e-bike riders, a 41-year-old man driving with a 39-year-old woman on the back, were taken to the hospital in stable condition. Police officials said neither were arrested. Their e-bike remained at the scene of the crash, which remained under investigation.
The city has been cracking down on riders of these crap-traptions, but it probably won’t surprise you to learn it isn’t working:
Dan Kim, 40, who rode by the scene on a similar e-bike as the one in the crash, said he’s been subject to a recent NYPD crackdown on e-bike riders.
“Last year, I got like six [tickets] in one day,” said Kim. “They [the police] were just following me.”
Dan’s not getting the message, is he?
But let’s also pause to appreciate that brilliant New York City innovation, the combination bike lane-bus stop:
I believe this is the very same one where the fatal crash occurred:
This is really the height of stupidity. Putting a bus stop in the path of fast-moving wheeled traffic is like inviting people over for a party and putting the bowl of mixed nuts on the floor right next to the toilet. It’s all maddening, but the problem with advocacy is that it’s guaranteed to drive you crazy. At first you just want to make things better, but eventually you just find yourself riding around and looking for stuff to get upset about:
First they tell you we need to rebuild the whole city because it’s going to be underwater by 2100 due to climate change, then when the city starts rebuilding they complain that the detour isn’t convenient enough:
Continuing above Delancey Street on Clinton Street, I was forced into the car lanes by ambulettes, moving vans and Ubers blocking the bike lanes. After that, on Houston Street, the bike lane is squeezed between car lanes, and merging car traffic comes from both sides.
There’s that phrase again, though I maintain that with some notable exceptions (death, taxes, a bus stop that forces disembarking passengers to step right into bicycle traffic) nobody can force you to do shit. Certainly nobody can force you into a car lane. Sure, nobody wants to get off their bike and walk it onto the sidewalk and around the obstacle, but if you really were afraid of your life as the sorts of people who use this phrase pretend to be then you’d do it.
Then again, as perennially vexed as the advocates may be, they’ve got nothing on the anti-advocates. Consider Lucas Brunelle, who’s angry for reasons only he understands (something about wind and trees…?):
[I’m intrigued by he patch on his helmet. If I press it what happens?]
Sheesh, get over yourself, you’re just another retired guy riding a bicycle in Florida.