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Image description:
Text: Amazon's electric cargo bikes have arrived in DC.
Image: A four-wheeled vehicle that appears to be a cross between a bicycle, a go-cart, and a mini-truck
Response text from high t alpha shemale @gluetaster: that's not a cargo bike man that's a loopholemobile
On one hand it's fucking great for the environment.
On the other hand they're only doing this to avoid bare minimum requirements for drivers such as valid motor vehicle licenses and providing working A/C.
@fireweed
No pedals, so it's not an e-bike IMO.
@YimbyEarth @fireweed I don’t love how there has been a semantic shift so that mopeds stopped having to have pedals a long time ago, and now even ”bikes” don’t have to.
the fucking bike helmet
How to test if it's actually a bicycle:
I propose a simple ontological test by law enforcement. Simply steal one. If the police treat it like they do bicycle theft, it's a bicycle. If the police treat it like it's an auto theft, then it's an automobile.
If the police take the theft of one of these seriously, like they would a car theft, then point to that as justification for why they should be regulated like autos and banned from bike lanes. If the police treat it like bike theft....well....there's a lot of valuable materials in those loopholemobiles....and the police clearly aren't taking theft of them seriously...so....well the problem will solve itself.
That's kind of a dumb test. If I make a bicycle out of gold and diamonds and someone steals it, the theft will be taken seriously. Police just respond to crimes of different dollar amounts differently. It has nothing to do with the nature of this vehicle.
Edit. I haven't seen any more details on these vehicles, but it's clearly labeled a vehicle. I'm guessing it's registered and would be treated as an automobile theft.
That isn't really true. Police have a unique disdain for everything related to bicycling and cycling. Most cops are themselves morbidly obese, ideologically avoid exercise, and view bicyclists as hippies and fitness freaks who deserve to be run over. Police will go out of their way to not bring charges in the case of actual cyclists deaths. And they treat bicycle theft with active disdain, putting far fewer resources into bike theft than the value of the goods stolen would justify.
oh my god man, read it again in a funny voice and see if you get it this time
Electric truck.
Ahh, a western Took Took!
The shit us Americans will do to not just fucking use Kei trucks like the rest of the world.
A lot of it has to do with well-intentioned but stupid regulation.
The auto companies in the 2000s started calling everything a truck in order to get around fuel economy standards, so in 2008 the EPA announced that beginning in model year 2012, standards would be based on vehicle footprint instead of vehicle classification.
Notice how all the small trucks stopped being made after 2011? It's because small cargo vehicles suddenly had to somehow have better fuel economy than a sedan.
It's also why trucks have gotten stupidly big over the last 15 years. As standards increase, they can just make the footprint bigger.
That's a keitruck without regulations.
What? you don’t like corporate-exclusive keitrucks?
Amazon: Kei for me not for thee
Looks like a useful vehicle. Whatever else people decide to call it is their problem, not the driver's.
It's a problem of where this thing is allowed to drive. It's pretty huge for a bike lane.
Oh and it's also a problem of whether the you need a licence to drive it.
Weight, width and speed. That's all you have to look at. Just make lane wide enough.
You think it "looks useful" to replace the accelerator with ersatz pedals? The only sense it is useful is to work around legislation that was originally attempting to prevent this kind of thing.
Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. These have to be far quieter and don't pollute like cars. That's progress!
By all means, do criticise Amazon's treatment of workers and horrible policies in general. And yeah batteries are better than fossil fuels but still aren't the greenest. But IMO anything that brings the US closer to bicycle culture can't be all bad. Let's accept a win when we see it and keep pushing, yeah?
The posts about Berlin and Finland are inspiring, let's get others there too.
Okay, but what is pictured is a car sized vehicle that is going to be moving in traffic in the same place as cars, while simultaniously having fuckall safety features and no climate control. This is a fucking deathtrap, and just a new way to cut costs at the expense of working class lives. This is not progress, the is sacrificing people for the great capitalist overlords.
We have quite a few companies in Germany using similar vehicles in cities (I can't compare the sizes here). All in all it's a positive development. Maybe in this case it's a way to utilize a legislative loophole, but even then I would say: The loopholed law has a positive impact if the new vehicles are smaller and more energy efficient than the ones they replace.
Capitalism, uh, finds a way.
Capitalism finds a loophole.
Loopholemobile, oh yeah for sure, still waaayyyy better than a whole ass SUV.
Aren't SUVs the loophole mobiles? They're classified as trucks to avoid the gas guzzler tax.
They’re loophole mobiles too! They should just introduce the same rules as Japan and aspire k cars to flourish
I would love to see those taking over the streets, but I would hate to see them in the bike lane.
no AC and a singular water bottle. no protection for the driver either if someone decides to run up and drive off with it. Who thought this was a great idea?
Someone who will never have to use it, or likely even interact with someone who does
My first reaction would be: great!
Then I remember it's Amazon we're talking about, so it's pretty safe to assume there is some fuckery somewhere going on...
Ngl, I kinda want to get one to transform into a camping trailer. Become a traveling tea monk.
thats so funny, they cant include a steering wheel and the driver has to performatively rotate their legs :DD
