Home » Business » Why has the normal healthy bicycle been exchanged en masse for a two-wheeler that requires energy and resources? Cyclists who ride e-bikes should be ashamed of themselves | opinion

Why has the normal healthy bicycle been exchanged en masse for a two-wheeler that requires energy and resources? Cyclists who ride e-bikes should be ashamed of themselves | opinion

Time for e-bike shame? Photo: Shutterstock

Dutch cyclists are driving more and more kilometers on e-bikes. That is not always necessary and costs a lot of energy, writes Erik Koletzki.

At the start of the corona pandemic, many people had an optimistic idea that this crisis could lead to a more conscious and responsible approach to our world. A ‘reset’. Although that word soon became infected with a wappie virus. More than two years later, we can see from the speed with which most of us have returned to the ‘old normal’ that we had better let go of all optimism.

Shame of flight, shame of flesh, the words exist. So there will also be less flying or eating meat. But the throngs of holidaymakers who hid Schiphol en masse did not suffer enough from that kind of shame to stay at home.

The longing is stronger than the shame. While anyone who believes that humans have an influence on climate change (according to the CBS, 85 percent of the Dutch population) will also understand that it does not get any better this way. The Paris climate goals will never be achieved without radically changing our behavior.

Shamelessly traded in the healthy bike

Seen in that light, the shamelessness with which the most energy-efficient and healthy means of transport, the bicycle, are being exchanged en masse for a two-wheeler that requires energy and resources, should certainly provide some food for thought.

Of course there are people for whom an e-bike offers the opportunity to get ahead where this is otherwise not possible for physical reasons. But when I look around me, I see mostly healthy people who cycle electrically. Lots of young people on hip Van Moofjes, handy Urban Arrows or, even worse, ‘fatbikes’ that race through the city without having to pedal.

Many undoubtedly have a subscription to a gym in their pocket and the ambition to run at least twice a week. There are certainly also those who exchange the e-bike for the racing bike at the weekend to work on their condition. Of course, cycling is also healthy for people over 60. That pedal support really does not promote fitness and vitality.

More than a quarter of the kilometers are electric

What does that not cost us? On the internet you will find without any problems that it costs the e-bike user almost nothing per kilometer. But what will it cost the community? In 2019, more than a quarter of all kilometers cycled was electric. The Mobility Knowledge Institute expects this to rise to 37 percent in three years’ time. The total number of kilometers cycled will also increase in the coming years. So the following calculation is on the conservative side.

Until 2020, we cycled an average of 15 billion kilometers in the Netherlands. 37 percent of this is more than 5.5 billion. An electric bicycle consumes about 8 watt-hours per kilometer (125 kilometers per kilowatt-hour). To cycle 5.5 billion kilometers electrically, 44.4 billion watt-hours or 44.4 gigawatt-hours are needed.

To generate that amount of electricity without gas, coal or oil, seven large (3 megawatts) wind turbines will have to operate on land by 2025. Seven large wind turbines that rotate to power bicycles. The bottom line is that you can supply a small provincial town like Harlingen (15,800 inhabitants) with electricity if normal healthy people start pedaling on their own bicycles again.

So dear e-biker, shame on you very soon.

Erik Koletzki is a theater technician and bicycle enthusiast

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