article, 40 million new e-bikes

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borgbike
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article, 40 million new e-bikes

Saw this on the yahoo home page.

http://www.livescience.com/environment/071109-bts-electric-bikes.html

I was surprised by how negatively it portrayed electric scooters. I mean 40 million gas scooters would have 40 million batteries in addition to polluting the air.

DonCristobal
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Re: article, 40 million new e-bikes

Here's the abstract of the dissertation by Christopher Robin Cherry entitled "Electric Two-Wheelers in China:
Analysis of Environmental, Safety, and Mobility Impacts". Excellent food for thought. I can't wait until I have time to read the whole thing.

Chinese cities have a long legacy of bicycle use due to relatively low incomes, dense urban development, and short trip lengths. Because of tremendous economic growth, increased motorization, and spatial expansion of cities, trips are becoming longer and more difficult to make by bicycle. As a result, electric powered two-wheelers have risen in popularity over the past five years, with sales exceeding 16 million in 2006. Recently, policy makers have enacted bans on electric two-wheeler use, citing a poor safety record, a large contribution to congestion, and poor environmental performance. This study quantifies many of the safety and environmental impacts of electric two wheelers and balances the negative externalities by quantifying benefits to users in terms of increased mobility and access to opportunities.

Touted by some as environmentally friendly vehicles, electric two-wheelers are capable of traveling 40-50 kilometers on a single charge and emit zero tailpipe emissions. However, they do have significant environmental impacts because they use lead acid batteries that are recharged with electricity that is predominantly generated from coal 2 power plants, but they also have significant mobility benefits that are seldom considered. This research investigates the tremendous growth of electric two-wheelers in China and compares their environmental and safety impacts to those of alternative modes of transportation; such as traditional bicycles, public transportation, or personal cars. This research also analyzes the benefits of electric two-wheelers in terms of increased mobility and accessibility to opportunities due to their increased speed and range.

Electric two-wheelers tend to be more energy efficient and produce less air pollution per kilometer traveled than many other modes. Also, to the extent that they displace car trips, they improve the safety of the transportation system in Chinese cities. Electric two-wheelers provide much higher mobility and access to opportunities than all other low cost modes.

The impacts of electric two-wheelers on the transportation system are dependent upon local characteristics of the transportation system. Considering alternative transportation modes in two case studies (Shanghai and Kunming), banning electric twowheelers will result in higher net energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, the public health impacts from traditional air pollutants and road safety would likely be worse in a situation where electric two-wheelers are banned. The mobility and accessibility to the city will also deteriorate significantly for users of electric twowheelers. However, allowing electric two-wheelers in a city results in significant increases in lead pollution over the lifecycle, compared to alternative modes. This research shows that while electric two-wheelers do have some problems that need to be addressed (namely excessive lead acid battery pollution); they provide large benefits and can be a successful strategy toward a sustainable transportation future.

Don Cristobal
EVTA Z-20b
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Ohm is where the heart is.

ngocthach1130
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Re: article, 40 million new e-bikes

Well then i think the article should be corrected to specify it's the SLA battery technology that's faulty and not the scooters themselves. Banning bikes was a very bad move on their part. As far as the danger regarding bikes, i think there's a misconception. I ride my bike on the sidewalk a lot of time. Yes it's dangerous, but only because where i live lack bike lane. Riding on the street is very dangerous unless you have powerful bike like what people strive for. I'm sure there would be less incident/accident if there is a bike lane the size of a car lane. One car lane can easily accomodate 3 bike side by side, and for the length you can have 2 bike. Seriously, people walk on bike lane but won't use the sidewalk, i don't see people walking in the car lane right? The average speed where i live for local street is 40mph. This is in 25mph road. On occasion there will be 50mph people, truthfully i'm guilty of doing that sometime too, when i drive the car. So yes driving on the street is much higher danger to my life than carefully driving on riding on the sidewalk. Eitherway i'm only comfortable to ride at 28mph max on an ebike anyway, even then it is with the help of very generous hills. As far as bike being so quiet. It's an easily fixed problem, removing the loud noise from car is much harder. So i'm saying instead of banning bikes all together they could just ban or limit usage of lead. SLAs are horrible for ebike usage anyway. Banning ebike won't solve lead lead usage problems by much. Plus with more car on the road doesn't sound like a big advantage problem either. I remember from environmental class that source of pollution is easily controlled when it's a fix point, ie electric plants and battery factory. Controlling pollution on moving car is much harder. So it's just choosing between 2 evil, lead poisoning or live with smog filled city while your body is ridden with breathing problems. I think i prefer my dementia riding on ebike breathing in fresh air.

deronmoped
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Re: article, 40 million new e-bikes

The lead acid battery is old news.

Why present negative side of things, I would have pointed out that with that many e-bikes on the road there would be even more incentive to replace the old lead acid battery with a newer, better and cleaner battery. It's already happened years ago with a lot of our battery dependent devices, your not going to find a SLA in any portable device.

I bet in five years you will not find a decent e-bike sold in the US using SLA.

Deron.

Efried
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Re: article, 40 million new e-bikes

the analysis is not feasible - normally the lead of the batteries is recycled - 30-40% emission of the lead seems far too high for modern plants. Also the trend towards LiFePO4 chemistries is not mentioned - may be its to expensive of the domestic markets.
Anyhow the positive impacts of ebikes should be taken into consideration by western urban planners.

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