Originally Posted by
bluegoatwoods
Yamaha makes an electric bicycle? I want one! The only problem is the $1000 price tag. I'd be pretty worried about theft.
But I'm glad to see that stuff like this is catching on somewhere.
It makes one wonder, though: if the economy here in America would be devastated by fuel at, say, $5.00/gallon, then how does the rest of the industrialized world manage with fuel as high as it is in those places?
Could it be that we are getting by on an illusion that could be shattered any day?
The rest of the world gets by with MUCH more fuel efficient vehicles, including their cars. The average new car in much of Europe is a turbo Diesel of about 1500 to 2000cc engine capacity that gets 50+ MPG to as much as 75 MPG. Much more use of motorcycles and mopeds for transport as well as bicycles.
I paid as much as $4.00 per gallon for gas while touring Europe in 1972! That is 37 years ago.
The USA has historically had government policies of keeping energy dirt cheap compared to the rest of the world so the average American uses about 4x the energy of his European or Japanese counterpart. Their industries are also set up to be more energy efficient as it was worth the cost to design and build for energy efficiency due to energy costs. Steep rises in energy costs thus hit us harder due to our high use.
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