Mayor Pave strikes again:
Motorbikes on the bike path? A disaster for human-powered transportation. Bicycle advocates have toiled for decades to build modest ribbons of oasis for pedestrians and bicyclists. Now, the corporate-controlled Wisconsin Bicycle Federation militates against peaceable transit.
Aging boomers? Boo-Hoo. Maybe time for the old hippies to get back into shape …before it’s too late.
I would have no problem with ebikes for truly disabled individuals prominently displaying a doctor-ordered handicap tag. (And restricted to a rec-rider speed of 12 mph.) But anyone else enjoys the privilege of bike path access the old fashioned way: they pedal it.
Ebikes belong where all motorized vehicles belong: on the street.
We deserve peaceable biking & walking environs, not speedways. And yes, 20mph is a very fast, open-road speed that technically-skilled club riders attain in a strong peloton. It is completely inappropriate for our very narrow bike paths. And if the boomers are so enfeebled that they need motor assist, then they most certainly won’t be ‘able’ enough to control a bike at those speeds.
Furthermore, Beware the Batterypocalypse: Already we know that mining cobalt – the critical element in these high tech batteries – is denuding tropical rainforests, routinely killing child workers, poisoning communities and inciting wars.
As the WaPo article points out, it will only get worse:
“Worldwide, cobalt demand from the battery sector has tripled in the past five years and is projected to at least double again by 2020, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.
“This increase has mostly been driven by electric vehicles.“
Then, get ready for the piles of eWaste. Toxic Superfund sites of the 70s–still plaguing us to this day–will pale in comparison to this problem.
Let’s have some truth in naming; let’s change WBF to WMF: Wisconsin Motorbike Federation.
Cieslewicz earned his Mayor Pave moniker because of his pro-car budgets while mayor of Madison. Year after year he boosted pavement spending at ELEVEN TIMES the rate of inflation + population growth combined. Everything else was flatlined or crushed (except police spending, of course). Bikes got crumbs. He likes motor vehicles. Quite a volte-face by the erstwhile smart growth guru. He lost the support of the Madison bike advocates who originally brought him to power, therefore, he lost. During his time as WBF ED, mode share for bikes sputtered and stalled (at least in Madison, and probably in the rest of the state, thus this desperate act).
Human power is no longer on the growth trajectory it was before the operatives took over bike advocacy. The paid & professional go for the cash, not the general good. They don’t care where the cash comes from–even the killing fields of the Congo.
And the general walking & biking public be damned.