Without underestimating the lobbying power of legacy logistics suppliers and the ancillary businesses they support, I think it is an undeniably logical next step for cities to adopt e-bikes for courier services, taxi services, and more. The NYC speed limit is 25mph, that is theoretically what the flow of traffic moves at, and many e bikes are capable of that speed today (in reality in NYC traffic moves closer to 35-40mph, and that is the danger of cycling with traffic here). But if we think about the speed limit, and the much smaller footprint of e bikes, there is a huge opportunity. The major knock against e bikes is exposure to bad weather, but I think we are not too far away from better weather neutralizing technologies in ebikes (I wouldn't mind being a kid in the R&M Load canopy on a winter day). The point I'm trying to make is, less cars = less pollution, less car-related deaths, and a generally less noisy city. Imagine walking down the street on a nice day without having to listen to or watch out for honking fast-moving 4,000 pound metal boxes all around you. Then again, if all cars were self-driving and going the speed limit, we might not need to worry about this.
