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Comment by k99x55 | Hacker News Reader

Cars are the most age discriminatory mode of transport of all: only 18+ and not too old can use it, and most disabled cannot use it. A

Bicycles work to all ages, all abilities.

In your case an ebike, trike (etrike?) or even mobility scooter might be a much lighter, cheaper, scalable option.

Hey why not a self-driving e-scooter? Why does it have to weight 2 tons in the first place?

Bike infrastructure is not only for bicycles: its for trikes, wheelchairs, mobility scooters, ebikes.

Watch:

* Who else benefits from the Dutch cycling infrastructure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSGx3HSjKDo

* 8 to 80, people of all ages cycling in the Netherlands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swqaAIkGtpA

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Have you ever interacted with a person over 70 that has mobility problems? Do you really expect an 80 year old to ride a scooter up a hill in the rain/snow? Getting into the car is difficult enough.

I'm not saying to ban cars, just to de-prioritize them The use case for bicycle-and-similars is way more than the use case for cars specially urban places (also outside urban places)

Dunno - check out old guy on mobility scooter video: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2028301917230649

I'm a little like that myself - not as old at 60 but have switched to an ebike to still go fast.

...that's a meme post of a guy in a mask. It's not an old guy.

Ah so it is! Still I was looking at getting a mobility scooter for my dad, about 85 at the time, though I don't think he would have pulled wheelies.

Or move to a flatter area ?

I know what you're getting at here and I agree with you in spirit, but:

A lot of life-alteringly physically disabled people can drive cars. For example, lower-body paraplegics and double amputees can use hand throttle and brake controls. Single leg amputees can drive with a single leg, single arm amputees can drive with a knob on the steering wheel, and so on.

And bicycles do not work to all ages in the same way that cars don't. When you can't make safe decisions in traffic a bike can't work. Heck, a tumble off a bike could be the end of mobility for an elderly person.

(I wonder how many places expect mobility scooters to be on the sidewalk vs. allowed on a bike path?)

Let's give that self driving e-scooter four seats, oops that's a kei car... They weigh almost exactly one ton too, before adding four adults and a suitcase or two.

Just take see how roads in Tokyo already look like[1]. Cars are already driven like factory floor robots[2]. Actually automating those hurts nothing.

1: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=factory+agv

2: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=driving+tokyo

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