The New York Times attacks e-bikes while ignoring the real danger all around us
The New York Times published a pair of articles this weekend highlighting the rising number of deaths of cyclists riding electric bikes. However, in one of the most impressive feats of victim-blaming I’ve seen from the publication in some time, the NYT lays the onus on e-bikes instead of on the things killing their riders: cars.
The first article lays out a number of recent tragic deaths of e-bike riders, including that of a 15 year old boy in Encinitas, California.
The article even explicitly lists the biggest danger that played a role in that crash, explaining that the boy’s bike “had a top speed of 20 miles per hour, but his route took him on a busy road with a 55-mile-per-hour limit.” And yet the article seems to imply that the e-bike’s presence was the compounding issue, instead of reading into the author’s very own sentence to realize that the true problem was that the road didn’t have anywhere safe for cyclists to ride. There was no protected bike lane.
By all accounts, the e-bike rider was correctly and legally using the roadway in the only way he could. In fact, according to eye-witnesses of the car crash that killed the e-bike rider, he “did everything right,” including signaling his turn.
The article goes on to detail how just three days later another teenage e-bike rider was pulled out from under a BMW – thankfully still alive – and taken to the same emergency room where the previous boy had been pronounced dead. Apparent praise is lauded on Encinitas for soon afterwards declaring “a state of emergency for e-bikes”, which is a bit like saying we could just solve the school shootings crisis if kids would stop walking into all of those damn bullets.
The article goes on to describe several other recent deaths from crashes of electric bike riders, many of them younger riders.
As Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School David Zipper pointed out, every single e-bike crash listed in the article was a collision between a car and e-bike. None were simply e-bike crashes without the added of a car. “All could’ve been avoided if e-bike riders were protected from cars (or if there were no cars)”, Zipper explained on Twitter. “Fight the real enemy.”
In a second NYT article this weekend dedicated to e-bike safety, removing any doubts otherwise with the title What Is an E-Bike, And How Safe Are They?, the publication does an even more olympic level of mental gymnastics to avoid blaming cars for cyclist injuries and deaths.
Amazingly, the article uses a statistic pointing out how dangerous cars are, but flips it around to imply that because studies have proven that faster moving cars are dangerous, that means e-bikes shouldn’t travel too fast, presumably to also reduce the danger of these small and lightweight machines.
“By various measures, the risks of serious injury and death rise sharply at around 20 m.p.h., although much of that research involved collisions between cars and pedestrians. For instance, the risk of severe injury to a pedestrian is 25 percent when the car is moving at 16 m.p.h., and it rises to 50 percent at 23 m.p.h., according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.”
It’s right there. The answer is literally in the body of the NYT article. Unprotected road users (pedestrians and cyclists) are much more likely to be severely injured by cars as the car speed increases. And yet this statistic is used to imply that e-bikes shouldn’t be used at speeds of over 20 mph.
There’s no deeper analysis paid to the fact that the thing killing users of 50 lb machines going 25 mph are the 4,000 lb machines that can go 100+ mph.
Safer cycling infrastructure protects everyone
The answer is quite simple: make streets safer for everyone. To do so, protected cycling lanes must be installed. No one (outside of the few violent and aggressive drivers) actually wants to hit a cyclist with their car. These accidents usually happen because drivers simply aren’t looking for the smaller profile of cyclists when they scan intersections for cars. We can implore drivers to be more careful, or we can simply move them away from cyclists in the first place. Only one of those two methods have been proven effective at preventing injuries and deaths.
And that’s exactly the point. Car drivers can’t be trusted to look for cyclists, even when cyclists have the right of way. And thus the answer is to provide safer, separated cycling lanes with physical barriers.
These separated cycling lanes next to roads have numerous benefits. They of course create safer areas for cycling, but they also reduce traffic for cars by encouraging more people get out of cars and commute by bikes. The safer people feel using a bike, the more of them do it. And studies have shown that a 10% reduction in car volume can result in a 40% reduction in traffic congestions. Furthermore, separated cycling areas even make cities safer for emergency workers on calls. Protected bike lanes in the Netherlands are even used by firefighters and ambulances (safely) to arrive at emergency scenes more quickly. Dutch riders quickly move over for emergency vehicles borrowing the lanes.
Many cities around the US are making progress on improving their protected cycling infrastructure, but the wins are often hard fought against activist drivers who see protected cycling lanes as some sort of attack on cars. Still, each new safe cycling lane is a step in the right direction. The progress is slow, but it is moving forward.
Now if only someone at the New York Times could see that…
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Environment
Waymo pauses robotaxi service in San Francisco after blackout chaos — Musk says Tesla car service unaffected
The Dahon K-Feather is one of those electric bikes that makes a lot more sense the longer you ride it. On paper, it looks rather low-power and low-capacity compared to the spec sheets for most e-bikes. In practice, especially when used exactly as intended, it turns out to be a remarkably well-executed urban commuter that still feels refreshingly different years after its release.
Launched earlier this year by Dahon, a brand best known for decades of folding bike experience, the K-Feather was never meant to compete with high-power folding e-bikes loaded with throttles, suspension, and giant batteries.
Instead, it aims for something far simpler: a super lightweight folding bike that just happens to have electric assist.
A lightweight e-bike, even by light e-bike standards
At around 26 lb (11.8 kg), the K-Feather is shockingly light for an electric bike, even by today’s standards. Pick it up and it barely registers as an e-bike at all. That’s largely thanks to its extremely minimalist design, highlighted by the cleverly hidden battery integrated into the seatpost.
The 24V 5Ah battery offers roughly 120 Wh of capacity, which is undeniably small, but it also avoids the bulky look and awkward weight distribution that many early e-bikes suffered from.
The result is a bike that feels balanced, easy to carry, and genuinely pleasant to live with in an urban environment. Folding it up is quick and intuitive, and carrying it up stairs or onto public transport doesn’t feel like a chore. For apartment dwellers, train commuters, or anyone combining cycling with other forms of transportation, this matters a lot.
I’m not sure how else to say this without beating a dead horse, but it is just incredibly lightweight. When you pick it up, your brain just sort of short-circuits as it fails to compute that this is still an electric bike.
Simple, subtle electric assist
Power comes from a 250W rear hub motor that provides pedal assist only. There’s no throttle, no complex display, and no attempt to turn the K-Feather into something it isn’t. The assist tops out around 15.5 mph (25 km/h), aligning more with European-style pedelec limits than US Class 2 or Class 3 expectations.
For those accustomed to American-style electric bikes, that may sound quite slow. And if you’re trying to keep up with traffic on the shoulder of a busy road, it is slow. But this e-bike is more designed for bike lane cruising, where 15 mph means you’re easily keeping up with, or passing, most pedal bike riders.
The assist itself is quiet and unobtrusive. It doesn’t leap forward when you start pedaling, and it doesn’t overpower the ride. Instead, it feels like a gentle push that smooths out stop-and-go city riding and takes the edge off short climbs and headwinds. You still feel like you’re riding a bike, just a slightly stronger version of yourself.
The torque sensor definitely does its job, coming on quickly and effectively without being lurchy, though it’s hard for a 250W motor to feel lurchy anyway. But with an effective torque sensor instead of a laggy pedal assist sensor, the minimal assist still feels nice and natural, as if you’re simply always pedaling with a tailwind.
That riding feel is a big part of the K-Feather’s charm. It doesn’t try to impress you with acceleration or brute force. It simply makes urban cycling easier, calmer, and more approachable. It’s not a powerhouse, but rather a sensible commuter.
Where the limitations show up
There’s no getting around the fact that the K-Feather’s small battery and modest motor define its limits. Range is typically quoted at around 15 to 20 miles (25 to 40 km), and that’s realistic if you’re riding on relatively flat terrain and contributing a reasonable amount of pedal effort. Start pushing hills hard or riding aggressively, and that number will drop.
There aren’t multiple pedal assist levels, so it’s not like you can drop it into lower pedal assist power to save battery. Instead, range largely comes down to your weight, your riding, speed, and how hilly your terrain proves to be.
Similarly, steep climbs will quickly reveal the bike’s low power output. This is not a hill crusher, and it’s not pretending to be one. The single-speed drivetrain reinforces that reality, keeping things simple and low maintenance but limiting flexibility when terrain gets demanding.
The V-brakes look old-school, sure. But I wouldn’t actually ding them here because they seem to work great. I had rim brakes for a long, long time. And while I enjoy the stopping power and low maintenance of hydraulic disc brakes, I can’t ignore the fact that when I yank on these stoppers, I quickly find myself stationary. So yeah, pooh-pooh them all you want for being older tech, but they work.
And lastly, I do wish the tail light and headlight were powered by the main e-bike battery. Instead, they have their own dedicated rechargeable batteries. It works, but it’s one more thing to remember to charge every now and again.
For riders coming from American-style, high-powered e-bikes, these constraints might feel significant. But context matters here, and that’s the thing to keep in mind for anyone considering an ultra-lightweight e-bike like this. The K-Feather isn’t trying to replace a car or handle long suburban commutes. It’s designed for short urban trips, last-mile riding, and compact living situations, and in that role, its limitations feel more like trade-offs than flaws.
In its element: city commuting
The key takeaway for me is that the K-Feather works best as a runabout in a dense city environment, which is where it makes perfect sense. Short trips between neighborhoods, errands, commuting a few miles to work, or riding to a train station are exactly what it excels at. Its light weight makes it easy to carry inside rather than locking up outside, and its discreet appearance doesn’t scream “expensive e-bike.”
In fact, at around US $1,299 depending on current pricing and sales, that’s a pretty darn good price for an ultra-lightweight e-bike. We’re used to seeing e-bikes in this price range fetch higher figures in the $3,000 to $4,000 range (and sometimes even much more) from exotic frame materials and obscure drivetrains. But the K-Feather just uses clever engineering that tracks with Dahon’s decades of design legacy to create something light yet stiff, and without breaking the bank.
The small wheels and compact geometry make it nimble in traffic, and the assist smooths out frequent starts and stops at intersections. You arrive less sweaty and less fatigued, but still feel like you actually rode a bike rather than being carried by a motor.
This is also a bike that appeals to riders who want electric help without fully committing to the idea of an e-bike. It’s unintimidating, visually understated, and mechanically simple. For many people, that’s a feature, not a drawback.
Final thoughts
The Dahon K-Feather isn’t for everyone, and it certainly isn’t trying to be. If you want high speed, long range, or hill-dominating power, this is not the bike for you. I’d recommend that you look elsewhere (and be prepared to lift several more kilos).
But if you want a genuinely lightweight folding e-bike that integrates electric assist in a subtle, elegant way, it still holds up remarkably well. And folds up remarkably well, too.
Used in its intended environment as a city-focused commuter and last-mile bike, the K-Feather works exactly as promised. It’s simple, refined, and quietly effective, and that’s a combination that remains surprisingly rare in the e-bike world.
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BYD is taking a page from the Airbnb playbook by launching a home charger sharing system that lets EV owners open up their personal charging equipment to other BYD drivers — and get paid for the convenience.
Instead of waiting for utilities or charging networks to build out more public infrastructure, BYD is effectively crowdsourcing existing capacity from home chargers its customers have already installed, turning underused residential charging equipment into a shared resource while its owner is at work or away.
Also like Airbnb, the app allows the charger’s owner and user to settle the pricing and availability and other transaction details between themselves, with contact information and messaging also going through the app.
Great, if not totally unique idea
BYD’s system seems to be more polished and, thanks to the integrated card reader, a bit more accessible than similar concepts from Nio and XPeng. XPeng’s system allows charger owners to set different electricity prices at different times (ex.: off-peak electricity at 0.35 yuan/kWh, significantly lower than peak), to cover their electricity costs.
The XPeng system also only seems to support automatic payment through the app, as opposed to the BYD system that bakes a card reader right in.
Electrek’s Take
I don’t know enough about the public charging scene throughout China – a massive country half a world away – to know how much of a need this is serving, but here in the US, I seem to recall that this was more or less PlugShare’s original concept, and could easily imagine a half-dozen scenarios outside of an Airbnb where a simple, app-based system like this could play out positively for both the EV driver and the equipment owner.
Multifamily apartments or condos with deeded spaces, churches, schools, municipal buildings, or other spaces that sit empty most days could be great uses for this, and I bet you guys could think of two or three more. I look forward to hearing about them, and whether or not a brand-specific network could help move the needle for a brand like Harley or Jeep that’s struggling with its EVs, in the comments.
SOURCE | IMAGES: BYD, via CarNewsChina.
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