I live in a city where public transportation is overcrowded, there’s constant vehicle traffic, and you can’t depend on any commute time for a given day or hour. The average temperature is very high, so walking is a sweaty affair.
The only way I’ve found to make this city more usable is with an ebike and scooter. It’s like the perfect vehicle for these conditions.
However, many people reject the technology and either choose their car or other forms of getting around.
Is it because it’s not well understood, or seems too expensive?
I’m curious what sold you on the technology or what is the reason you’re not making the leap.
Comfort. Commute is always miserable, I’d at least like to do it sitting down, in air conditioning.
Time/distance. Even if it helps bypass traffic inside the city center, it doesn’t help with the first part of the commute which is getting to the city. Am I supposed to pay for parking at the city edge and take a bike the rest of way? Rather than use the spot my employer provides for free? Strictly speaking, the distance to the city edge isn’t so far as to make biking impractical for me, but whatever else it saves, it definitely won’t save time.
Transporting things other than myself. Oftentimes I’m moving other things to and from work besides myself, and often times it’s more than what can fit in a bag. Not a universal concern, but it is for me.
I live outside the range of where the local ebike rental service distributes them. Moreover, you can’t exactly count on them being when and where you may need them. That obviously unique to the rental services, though.
Weather. Should be self explanatory but I don’t want to worry about rain, and doing this in winter is out of the question, at least around here.
Last, and this goes for any type of transportation other than my car, at the end of the day, the idea of getting on the bike to get home feels exhausting. Like, I can muster the energy to do it in the morning, but after work? Knowing that I have to make that ride home after a hard day rather than just sit in my car and chill is not appealing.