Re: Electric bicycles, social policy & culture

On 4/14/2025 10:37 AM, Frank Krygowski wrote:

On 4/14/2025 2:52 AM, Wolfgang Strobl wrote:

Am Thu, 10 Apr 2025 12:40:59 -0400 schrieb Frank Krygowski
<frkrygow@sbcglobal.net>:
>

On 4/10/2025 12:09 PM, AMuzi wrote:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/are-e-bikes-a-godsend- or-the-road-to-
perdition-an-amish-community-is-torn/ar-AA1CAple

>
A couple remarks:

...
>

Holmes County, Ohio is quite hilly. We did a weekend there, riding
tandems with our best friends. One little side road marked the first
time we ever had to dismount and walk a hill despite our tandem's low
gearing. I can see why the Amish there would be motivated to accept
electric assist.

>
Sure. Who wouldn't?   But how many people of those who switched from a
bicycle to a motorized bike during the last decade are Amish people?
Wikipedia tells me that only 0.12% of the US population are Amish, so as
a first guess I'd expect > 99% of e-bike users not to be Amish.

 I think the Amish are always going to be a tiny, tiny percentage of almost any phenomenon. It's sort of the point of their chosen existence, to be a people apart from the norm.
 

Finally, while I'll never be Amish, I can admire that a culture has
priorities other than "How much shit can we buy before we die?"
Community is very important to the Amish, and community is a good thing.

>
But switching from bicycles to motorized bikes isn't a good thing in
general, especially not in a country known for their obesity crisis.
>
IMO, this is marketing for a motorized vehicle whose design mainly
consists of giving riders the illusion that they are riding a bicycle.

 I understand your point. But speaking of "people apart": That's you and me. At least in the U.S., but also in most other countries, avid cyclists are a relatively rare breed. In general, people who build purposeful exertion into their lifestyle are quite uncommon.
 Yes, there are certain locations where geographic factors - natural or built - make daily exertion more common. I'm thinking of dense towns with mixed zoning, where one can still find a grocery shop and a workplace within walking distance of most homes. But ISTM the trend in the "westernized" world is to make those places less and less common. And even in "developing" countries, as soon as a person can afford something with a motor, they want to buy it to make getting around easier.
 Those of us who push ourselves to use muscle power are similar to the Amish. We impose voluntary restrictions on ourselves, for what we perceive as our own good and the good of the community. We'll always be unusual, unless the built environment changes greatly.
 

The Amish expression is to be in the world but not of it.
Works for me.
--
Andrew Muzi
am@yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971