Q: Has owning an e-bike changed your car driving habits?

[Dominique Séguier]

@EriderM: I've ridden in winter, but never on an e-bike. I have apprehension about how the motor, bike weight, and speed will affect it. We shall see how brave I am this year.

@ebikes rock: Sounds like a great plan! Getting a cargo trailer really helped me use my bike more for shopping.

@Dominique Séguier: Can you go more places on your e-bike than you could on your motorcycle? Bike paths, etc? That's why I skipped over looking at motorcycles and scooters. Where I live, they are basically just cars. On my bike, I can travel all sorts of places you can't take a motorcycle or scooter.

@Cnugget: Usually when I go out, I'm just doing my normal shopping that I would have done in my car. So I don't see my self as spending more when I go out. But I do go for joyrides a lot more than I used to.

You are right, there is a lot of places where I didn't go with my motorcycle. I've found new ways to go from one point to another. And I think I stop more easily, I mean, riding an E-bike gives you the time to see what is around you, so when I am interested by something, I don't hesitate to stop. That, I certainly didn't do with my motorcycle.

 

[YD51]

Another "trying to save up to get an ebike soon" guy here. At the moment, I ride a 100% leg-powered Trek 7100 to and from work (about 20 miles round trip, 90% on paved paths). Obviously this substantially cuts down on my driving. I still use the car to get groceries and run errands, mostly during the weekend. However, my company is planning on moving our office even further away from my home in 2017, my knees just won't be able to handle all that extra mileage, and I'll be darned if I give up riding that easily. I've test ridden quite a few bikes and think I found the perfect ride for me in the Pedego City Commuter. I'm looking forward to 2017...

 

[James Kohls]

Another "trying to save up to get an ebike soon" guy here. At the moment, I ride a 100% leg-powered Trek 7100 to and from work (about 20 miles round trip, 90% on paved paths). Obviously this substantially cuts down on my driving. I still use the car to get groceries and run errands, mostly during the weekend. However, my company is planning on moving our office even further away from my home in 2017, my knees just won't be able to handle all that extra mileage, and I'll be darned if I give up riding that easily. I've test ridden quite a few bikes and think I found the perfect ride for me in the Pedego City Commuter. I'm looking forward to 2017...

That's great @YD51! As someone who came from a non-ebike and partially did commuter and shopping trips, an e-bike just helped melt away all the excuses I had to do it more. The same can be said about increasing your endurance as an e-bike will take smooth out all the difficult parts like cold starts and hills that drain your energy quickly.

 

[timtheteacher]

I have been biking the 10 miles to work 4 times a week since getting my ebike. I have a combination of 10 foot wide bike path, 2 lane and 4 lane streets. Only have to cross one 6 lane at a light. I am lucky because I travel north while most of the traffic travels south. I teach 8th grade and the kids are very interested in my mode of transportation.

 

[James Kohls]

I have been biking the 10 miles to work 4 times a week since getting my ebike. I have a combination of 10 foot wide bike path, 2 lane and 4 lane streets. Only have to cross one 6 lane at a light. I am lucky because I travel north while most of the traffic travels south. I teach 8th grade and the kids are very interested in my mode of transportation.

Hey @timtheteacher: I had a teacher growing up who commuted to work by bike. He would store it in the front of the classroom. I was only 12, I think, and he told me a story about how cars would pull across the median to give him more room for safety. It is a story that stuck with me into my driving years and really affected the way I pay attention to the safety of bicyclists and pedestrians when driving into my adult life. At age 43, I still think about him every time I pass a bicyclist on the road when driving.

 

[Dunbar]

I have a 5-yr old car with 12k miles on it so it's hard for me to cut my driving significantly from there. I've started making grocery runs on my e-bike which has hastened my desire to live car free. It's hard to justify the $4-5k a year a car is costing me when I drive it so little. I live on the west side of Los Angeles which is one of the few places in the US where a bike makes more sense than a car most trips. It's often just as fast to bike somewhere and you don't have to worry about parking finding a parking spot once you get there. Services like Uber/Lyft, Turo and Zipcar fill the gap when motor vehicle transport is needed. If I need to rent a car there's an Enterprise a few blocks away.

 

[James Kohls]

Sounds like you're on the same course I am @Dunbar. The difference being, my care costs me very little. It has been paid in full for years. With my limited driving (less than 3,000 miles/year pre-ebike), it doesn't get a lot of wear and the insurance is very low. In fact, before I decided on an e-bike, I priced out using busses to get rid of my car and the bus was more expensive and took longer—plus much less convenient. Given my car is going on 19 years in age, my current thoughts are just to keep it until it dies. My hopes are to never replace it.

 

[Dunbar]

My car (2011 Nissan SUV) is still worth too much to drop down to liability only insurance so I pay $1100/yr for insurance. Depreciation I figure is around $2k/yr. Maintenance, registration and gas probably $700-800/yr. Plus I could rent my parking spot out for +$1200/yr. Grocery shopping was one of the things that made me hesitant about going car free but I can comfortably do that on the e-bike. Heck, I don't even drive/park at airport anymore as it's cheaper to take Uber/Lyft if you're going to be gone for more than 24 hours. I can certainly afford it but it just seems so wasteful and frankly $5k a year allows one to do a lot of Uber/Lyfting around and still come out ahead.

 

[William Stoltz]

I love on an island, so my driving is rather limited, but since I got my e bike, I often ride for errands, to fetch groceries and so on. The car is now used only when passengers get involved in the trip. If my son and wife would fit into panniers without complaining..........

 

[Jaladhi]

For me, ebike is becoming the primary mode of transportation with the car being used on weekends.

 

[dm nelson]

I've been cycling for local errands and fitness for most of my life. The ebike is extending the distance I can go to do most errands and recreate. Living in a rural community where there is limited public transportation. I still fire up the car when I'm taking the canoe or kayak out to paddle. Perhaps I'll rig up an ebike trailer for the boats sometime.

 

[James Kohls]

@William Stoltz: Haha. You need comfier panniers!

@Jaladhi: That's great!

@dm nelson: A canoe trailer sounds great!

 

[mrgold35]

The wife and I are both +50 now and got back into cycling 2 1/2 years ago for exercise mostly. Our GT Transeo 3.0 commuter bikes served us well and we wanted to increase our range, speed and all terrain capabilities around town and when we travel with our bikes in the southwest. The elevation where we like to ride varies from 4900ft - 6000ft in Albuquerque. Not a lot of fun when your are coasting at 20-25 mph down hill or going up hill with your legs burning at 2-4 mph all the time.

Just got the RadRover ebikes to level out the hills and help us keep pace with the light weight road bikes on the level paved bike paths. It is even more enjoyable taking the RadRovers with the 4" fat tires off paved bike paths and hitting the twisty dirt trails around town. Since getting my RadRover, I started to use it instead of my car for my 16 mile round-trip commute to work. It only takes me 22-25 mins each way by bike (more direct route) compared to 10-12 mins each way by car. I can do the round trip on a single battery charge at max or a level down from max pedal assist.

It usually just gets in the 30s to low 50s in the fall/winter in NM; but still bright and sunny during the day. Planning to ride my ebike to work as long as the side streets are dry.