This is my first old man opinion and I don’t care who knows it. The habits of sedentary lifestyle get formed early. Learning that physical activity can feel good, make you feel accomplished, and is worth it does not happen overnight. The sheer amount of kids I see getting carried around at 45 mph on a sidewalk meant for slower things is astonishing. Half paying attention to the road while texting on their phones with ear buds in blowing past me walking my two dogs and kids just drives me nuts. Using your freaking naturally given legs and braking a sweat of some kind is good for you. No kids should be scooting their perfectly functional bodies around building a habit of being a lazy bones to go and play video games at a friend’s house. We have enough unhealthy people the last thing we need is an easy out for the one last vestige of useful physical work we have left.
Some notes I have for this. If you are in sports going to a sporting thing, ride your e-bike without shame. Obviously any physical or health reasons, great, glad you can get places. If you need to go really far or are commuting for a job, sweet, live your little life. Final admission is that given the same chance I probably would have gotten an e-bike and happily ridden past judgey millennials with a smile. I’m just trying to get places old man, don’t be a hater. But being on the other side I just hope kids can get exposed to using their physicality to do things for themselves and it makes me sad that potential biking fans could never discover their passion for something that is good for them and their environment.
I’m a hard core roadie that has been hit by 7 cars, 3 were bad, last 2 were at the same time and left me partially disabled where I have trouble with holding posture for extended amounts of time. Like sitting and/or standing for more than an hour are a major problem. I still ride, but not on the road. The benefit to road riders getting fast is that it takes a lot of effort to get fast and this means experience. None of my hits were my fault and most resulted in tickets for the offender.
I love that kids are on e-bikes. The dumbest ones will pay the blood taxes first and most will remove themselves from the equation. They pose a risk to me, but I’m all for them paying the blood tax instead of me. The infrastructure will get better funding and improved safety as lives are lost. Pretty much all the bicycle infrastructure that exists is paid for in blood. Don’t hate the rider doing their best to stay safe. Hate the terrible infrastructure that pushes them onto these surfaces. Reject the acceptability of incompetent driving. Like make hitting a cyclist the same mandatory fine and loss of license as a DUI. It is just as preventable. No you can’t make sudden turns without looking or pull out of that driveway hard when you can’t see, or make sudden uturns like an incompetent fool and disable someone. These are the real changes required. It is bad infrastructure that was outdated a hundred years ago while many parts of the world are FAR FAR better than the USA, and a stupid driver culture where incompetency is called an accident and there are no real consequences. Making preventable mistakes while driving distracted should be critically life altering in consequences. Don’t blame the symptoms, blame the cause.