Lowering carbon footprint
 

This past weekend, after much research, my wife and I purchased an bike - specifically the Tern HSD9.
Why this bike?
It can haul a sh*tload of stuff without going full in on a cargo bike.
Handling is quite nice for intended use - running errands (shopping et al) and occasional commute into city or my wife commuting to school where she works.
It is very versatile in sizing as we have two adopted girls from China, one 5' the other 5'4" while wife and I are far taller so everyone can use.

Having ridden it a couple of times now quite impressed with handling, the Bosch drive and overall design/attention to detail of Tern's engineers.

My ultimate goal is to have this bike displace at least half of our car trips that are under 10miles, at least until the weather turns for the worse here in New England and then we'll take it as it comes.

If we really want to do something about climate change, this may be a great first step that could lead civic leaders to more strongly promote bike use in their congested cities. We saw a glimmer of what might be possible during the height of pandemic, let us not slip back to old habits.

BTW, in talking to one of the shop managers at Belmont Wheelworks here in Boston area he told me ebike sales are skyrocketing - up over 300% this yr. While at the store, I estimate that 40% of all those coming in to look at bikes were checking out ebikes.

I would be happy with an eBike for going out to buy a few gallons of milk, bread, peanut butter, and other day-to-day items when a car is not really necessary.

This is a perfect use case for an ebike.

Question: What about security? What is your strategy for parking it when running errands or commuting to work or whatever. Generally POS thieves will steal anything not locked down.

honest question, even if i am stirring the pot here - how is buying a new bicycle, with batteries and motor, beneficial for my 'carbon footprint' compared to using the car that I already own?

sometimes I wonder if we (collectively) spend lots of money on things (bikes, new cars, new appliances, etc, etc) to feel like we're helping the environment.

Obviously everything has tradeoffs. Obviously the bike costs resources to produce, but then lowers emissions with every trip. Assuming he has a car and plans to continue having a car, by shifting more miles off the car and onto the bike, presumably he can now go more years between buying new cars. As such, the resources of the new cars would more than offset the resources of the bike, since car production is more resource intensive.

The payoff happens faster than expected even if you replace the existing car with an EV.

The emissions savings takes a little while to offset the construction of the new vehicle. The math for that works out differently depending on what the existing car is and what the new EV is. There's a larger emissions cost to producing an EV today compared to an ICE, but over their lifetimes the EV is still a big reduction.

But in the case of a eBike replacing car trips the emissions cost of producing the new eBike is tiny compared to a car, the payoff should be very fast.

It makes a ton of sense to use these eBikes instead of an ICE car to put off replacing the ICE car with an EV. Both financially and emissions wise.

This^^^

Thats a lot of 5 mile trips to take to postpone/offset a new car purchase.

I wonder about this stuff since we fret about own impact in my house. Living in an area where I dont need to use the car for everything, having 1 car, not commuting, avoiding things like single use plastic or paper (and recycling or reusing where I cant), composting, repairing stuff instead of replacing it, environmentally friendly cleaning stuff... does it matter or add up? I dont know....

15% unemployment and the high likelihood of a global depression?

Ebikes are a hoot to ride, I think they're great. Kind of irked that the 30% gov't kick-in was halved.

As sort of a mathgeek, I love finding actual data on comparative planet damage.

Examples:

Charging batteries with coal plant vs. solar vs. wind (now with recyclable blades! Or not.)

Manufacturing batteries (a dirty biz) then tossing in a landfill when done.

When I ride, I eat more, and more varied compared to driving.
How is that food getting from Argentina / Israel / dry Cali to me?
Probably not a bike courier. Dang.

Well, suppose you live 5 miles from work. 10 miles a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year is 2500 miles today. Maybe that's 1/3 of your total driving for a year, 7500 miles. Turn 80% of those commutes into bike trips, that brings your total driving down to 5500 miles. If you were going to buy a new car every 100,000 miles, you'll now hit that in 18 years instead of 13 years. That's 1-2 less cars over a lifetime of driving.

I don't know exactly how to compare the resource cost of building a new car vs a new e-bike, but by mass, cars can be 500-1000 times larger, so even the emissions just to transport the vehicle to the point of sale are going to be significantly lower.

A handful of corporations are responsible for the overwhelming majority of greenhouse gas emissions and are actively invested into shifting blame onto the average citizen. Enough hand wringing and tsk-tsking other people over their well intentioned personal choices.

Perhaps one could opt not to buy food from these places?

I'm not sure where you live, or what your lifestyle is, but I ride 20+hr/wk and eat a fair few calories, yet I am able to make a clear point of not buying food that is not produced in my region (PNW). A rough analysis by my partner and I found that, between our own growing and local purchases, 95% of our kcal are produced within the state.

No one is forcing you to eat Brazilian mangoes or California avocados.

I have a few co-workers who bought e-bikes in order to avoid buying an additional car in a multi-driver households. In this case the benefit (financial and environmental) is huge.

I started with a cargo bike with kids in Vancouver, and got used to grocery getting, errand runs, movie trips with it. Went to a long tail when they got older... ultimately the carbo bike helped us develop our preferences to living central/smaller/walking/biking life. Even found work that was biking/walking distance when moving to Ottawa...

So it started with the cargo bike but ended with us being car free going on 2 years now with our twins being 13 and in a city where there is a serious winter. Our kids still participate in activities, camps, see friends. The main con is we lost some spontaneity and some adventures we've missed out on as a result (last minute camping for instance...)

So I guess who knows where the cargo bike journey may take you? The kids initially complained, but now don't think twice about biking to get somewhere - like the beach, or the mall, or to a movie. We're all benefitting.