The Zen of E-Bike

Today I attended the ribbon cutting of the "missing link" trail, connecting the South and North County Trailways in Westchester County.  This is the final piece in a single, continuous 59km (36.8 mi) long trail following the Old Putnam Railway in Westchester County. http://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/2017/10/31/final-county-trailway-connection-opens-elmsford/817094001/ This piece consists of a new 1000m (.6 mi) stretch linking the two; previously, we had to detour onto a dangerous 4-lane state highway full of traffic, trucks and gravel/glass-strewn sidewalk.  Really, the worst kind.  Oh yes, the detour also included a warehouse/industrial district, complete with plenty of trucks.  Do you enjoy breathing diesel fumes?  I called it the "Armpit of Westchester."  And now that's all history; we have a nice new path instead; beautiful, landscaped by the Saw Mill River. The path is short and sweet; and a lot shorter than the older industrial d...

What does this have to do with E-bikes?  Well, e-bikes make it a lot more feasible to commute  around Westchester and Rockland Counties.  Especially with the hills in the "River Towns" along the Hudson River.  If only we can get across the Hudson... I was at the Route 9 Active Transportation meeting last Thr night. There is currently no safe bicycle access to the TZB. Although large parts of Westchester are bikeable without bike lanes, both Route 9 and Route 119 are disasters. The meeting was predictable: planners presented their findings, and a few cranks dominated the discussion with "don't take away our parking." Then they posted comments on how "Route 9 is too dangerous for bike lanes" or "look at all the traffic now." Also "how will emergency vehicles get through;" well, a recent Bike Snob photo shows how that will work. Go figure. But the cranks all left early, leaving the rest of the event for everyone else ...

E-bikes have exploded on the scene in recent years, seemingly out of nowhere.  Although they are still relatively rare in the USA, we now see E-bikes of European and Chinese design reaching our shores simultaneously, and increasing in popularity.  A brief history of how we got to where we are today is in order. The E-bike has a long pre-history, going back as far as the invention of electricity and bicycles themselves  [Electricbike.com: E-Bike Patents] .  However, the modern history of e-bikes starts around the year 1995, with widespread availability of cheap neodynium magnets.  That set the stage for what has happened since in China, the mother load of e-bikes worldwide. E-Bikes in China Since 1990, China has urbanized at a breakneck pace, growing from about 200 million urban residents in 1990, to 700 million in 2015.  This influx of 500 million new urban residents has transformed every Chinese city, and led to the rapid rise of brand new cities a...

Hi!  I'm your host for this blog, and I love  electric-assist bicycles, aka e-bikes.  By now, you've probably heard about these newfangled contraptions.  Maybe you've read the "scourge of illegal e-bikes driven by reckless restaurant delivery workers" in New York City.  Maybe you live in the Five Boroughs and you've seen these bikes yourself; on the Hudson River Greenway, or zipping through a Manhattan bike lane.  Maybe you have nothing to do with New York City, but you've heard e-bikes are a great way to stay active as you age.  Or maybe you saw an e-bike on display on your last trip to Costco.  There are almost as many experiences with and opinions of e-bikes as there are people. E-bikes hold tremendous promise for personal mobility, while addressing some vexing issues of traffic, cost and pollution that currently plague our transportation.  They are cheap and lightweight, and they cut through traffic easily --- all while getting using th...