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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The protected bike lane along Irving is very nice.

I take my two kids on e-bike to school which we lotteried into.

Pros:
- Much faster and more reliable than any other mode of transit
- Easy to park anywhere
- Easy to carry large amounts of kid stuff
- I am less tired from having to make the trip 4 times a day!

Cons:
- Traffic, cars, bikes, pedestrians it really feels like no one follows the rules 
- Construction - there is nearly always some form of construction blocking part of the way that lasts years
- Safety, I do feel like it comes with a much higher likelihood of an accident
- Repairs, these are inevitable and a pain with an ebike.

We ride pretty much in all weather. I invested in good rain and snow clothes. Occasionally we take the bus when the bike is broken or it is too icy.

I use side streets, protected bike lanes when possible and I tend to ride a low speeds without much assist even though I could go much faster.[/quote]

Another con is cost. We don't have an e-bikes because they are expensive and seem to crap out faster than you'd expect given the cost. We have friends who are on their 3rd e-bike in 10 years. That's like 15k in e-bikes (they aren't buying the cheapest models). And doesn't even include upkeep costs.

People are always trying to convince us to get an e-bike but the economics don't make sense for us even though I see the benefit of having a way to travel with kids that is faster than walking but more eco-friendly and convenient than a car. If e-bikes were more similar in cost to a regular bike, that would be different. 
[/quote]

My sister just bought a low-miles Subaru Forester (2015? 2016?) [u]for $15k.[/u]  She lives in DC and the mandatory liability insurance on this car is about $85/month. Registration is $175 year.  At the rate she drives this car, <1500 miles/year, it will certainly last another 10 years.

No way would i spend the same money on what are essentially disposable e-bikes over the same 10 yr period.  And no, the petroleum she is consuming in real-world practice is not actually contributing to climate change in a meaningful way.[/quote]

I was really bummed out when I learned how frequently people wind up replacing either the whole bike or the battery. It really cuts down on the environmental argument for me. And yes, the cost is outrageous for something you will wind up replacing that frequently. And in addition to the bikes just crapping out and needing to be replaced, in DC you have to worry about theft.

Before I fully understood the costs I was imagining being able to ditch our car altogether and just switch to a pair of e-bikes. But it's honestly way cheaper to just keep our car (which is paid for and, like your sister's, should last forever since we drive it so rarely) and then walk or take public transit most of the time. An e-bike would be faster for a lot of stuff, but it's definitely not cheaper.[/quote]

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