Definitely depends on how you use it. For me it is definitely worth it, since I hated dumping a lot of money into car repairs and I now live within 7km of all the shops I’ll ever need. I got rid of my car there and then though, so it really replaces my car. Plus I now got a foldable second ebike that don’t cost anything to take with you on a train.
Most of the stores I frequent are within a 5 km circle from me, and the more esoteric ones within 10 km. So while I don’t need the car at all for my regular shopping, it’s still a fixture in my life due to friends and family that live some 30 km away, with no hope of decent, orbital public transport around the metropolitan area.
So the best I can do for now is to be car-lite, reserving the car for those longer trips. This adds some 2000 miles [3200 km] per year, which also helps keep my running and maintenance costs down. Although I’ve had my eye on taking a Class 3 ebike and pressing it into service as my long distance machine. This could also potentially be useful for inter-city trips by rail, as Amtrak has a commuter rail service here to the next metropolitan area, and can accommodate bicycles free of charge.
But basically, as a single person, I presently don’t have the need to move a bunch of stuff when I go biking, but rather want to solve the problem of getting just myself somewhere farther and with reasonable speed, to backfill the non-existent public transport in specific directions. Still, these cargo bikes are cool and maybe one day I’ll see one in the wild here.
Definitely depends on how you use it. For me it is definitely worth it, since I hated dumping a lot of money into car repairs and I now live within 7km of all the shops I’ll ever need. I got rid of my car there and then though, so it really replaces my car. Plus I now got a foldable second ebike that don’t cost anything to take with you on a train.
Most of the stores I frequent are within a 5 km circle from me, and the more esoteric ones within 10 km. So while I don’t need the car at all for my regular shopping, it’s still a fixture in my life due to friends and family that live some 30 km away, with no hope of decent, orbital public transport around the metropolitan area.
So the best I can do for now is to be car-lite, reserving the car for those longer trips. This adds some 2000 miles [3200 km] per year, which also helps keep my running and maintenance costs down. Although I’ve had my eye on taking a Class 3 ebike and pressing it into service as my long distance machine. This could also potentially be useful for inter-city trips by rail, as Amtrak has a commuter rail service here to the next metropolitan area, and can accommodate bicycles free of charge.
But basically, as a single person, I presently don’t have the need to move a bunch of stuff when I go biking, but rather want to solve the problem of getting just myself somewhere farther and with reasonable speed, to backfill the non-existent public transport in specific directions. Still, these cargo bikes are cool and maybe one day I’ll see one in the wild here.