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I mean, electric bikes don't necessarily replace something that actually destroys the environment while electric cars could replace gas powered cars which would be very good for the environment
this is important. e-bikes displace regular bikes and pedestrians.
they could displace cars & motorcycles. but that would take a cultural shift in addition to a technical shift.for example in my neighborhood tons of kids are now riding ebikes around. instead of regular bikes. and they're dumb (read: young and haven't bashed their head enough yet) kids so they make the existing walking and bike paths dangerous with their "three up and reading texts while riding too fast" behavior. (I'm not joking; true scary event while walking the dog). They are mostly smart enough to avoid playing in traffic (drat!) which means they're causing pain for pedestrians and not cars.
As far as I can tell (small sample size) once one of them gets a car they switch and drive their car at speed while still looking at their phones. Presumably the rich kids get electric cars.
I'd vote heavily for more and better bike lanes on all the surface streets. Or a city ordinance that lets them ride their ebikes in traffic like mopeds. Perhaps stricter speed limits on the cars to make this safer. These would be cultural (legal) shifts that help ebikes displace cars.
Ebikes greatly increase potential riders as well as actual riders. This increases infrastructure pressure and makes biking more viable for all. Not to mention shifting more short trips to bike vs car, helping car owners see the other side etc