Exceeding 10.000 km with E-Bike

This post has moved to eklausmeier.goip.de/blog/2017/04-05-exceeding-10-000-km-with-e-bike.

As described in Commuting to Work with an E-Bike I drive to my work place using an e-bike. As I found out that using a bike is a viable alternative to public transport I bought a better e-bike after about a year. I bought my first e-bike in March 2015, my second in December 2015, and used it since January 2016. With this second e-bike I now exceeded more than 10.000 km within a year, as shown in below photographs from the odometer. In total I have now travelled about 20.000 km with my two bikes within two years, i.e., I cycled half the earth perimeter.

Urban planning

This post has moved to eklausmeier.goip.de/blog/2015/08-16-urban-planning.

As I commute to work with my e-bike I became more and more interested in bicycle lanes. It looks that this a coming trend in many modern cities. See for example New York, New York’s streets? Not so mean any more, a talk by former chief of the department of transport Janette Sadik-Khan under the reign of former mayor Michael Bloomberg.

There is blueprint for urban street design in Urban Street Design Guide by NACTO (National Association of City Transportation Officials).

Prof. Dr. Hermann Knoflacher many years earlier in “A New Parking Organisation” promoted similar or more radical ideas.

Converting car parking for bicycle parking is very obvious, as can be seen from below photo:

See Cycling Professor on Twitter:

In Berlin 13% commute to work by bike, in New York this number is 1%, see New York und Berlin (in German).

Added 13-Mar-2018: I held a short speech on this topic, in German.

Commuting to Work with an E-Bike

This post has moved to eklausmeier.goip.de/blog/2015/05-27-commuting-to-work-with-an-e-bike.

My current workplace in Frankfurt is 20 km from my home. In the past years I used the train to go there. Unfortunately the train became more and more unreliable. Sometimes the train had lots of delays, sometimes the train just didn’t arrive, sometimes the train was heavily crowded, often the information you receive during delays is wrong or misleading. Add to this the strike of the railway drivers, then you really question whether it is justified to pay ca. 130 EUR per month for the train. So in one year I pay roughly 1,500 EUR for public transport.

Advances in Automotive Technology

This post has moved to eklausmeier.goip.de/blog/2014/09-20-advances-in-automotive-technology.

Since a couple of decades people drive cars, motorcycles and trucks which pretty much look and work the same as a couple of decades ago. I.e., cars are made of steel, use a fuel powered motor, have 4 seats, etc. Although there are clearly advances in the area, like fuel consumption, electronic assistance systems, design, streamlined shape, most of the technology is basically the same.

The car industry is now witnessing two major trends:

1. combustion engine is replaced by electric engine
2. self-driving cars