The ultimate commuter vehicle

I recently took the plunge and bought my first new bicycle since eighth grade.

Electric.

Though many consider electric bicycles “cheating” (when they zip past regular bikes on a trail), I had many reasons for venturing into this new category of cycles.

1. In October-ish, my office is moving from 7.2 miles one-way to 11.4 miles one-way. The difference in my regular bicycling commute will be roughly another 40 minutes out of my day. A commute on this bike is close to the time of driving. And with the typically bad traffic along the new route, the electric bike might actually be faster!
2. Every time I ride the electric bike rather than drive, I’m preventing a significant amount of pollution. (I plan to ride as many days as I can.)
3. It’s still exercise… the motor won’t go unless you are pedaling. (It’s a “pedal assist” bike.) Even though it doesn’t provide as much exercise as a commute on my road bike, I am still getting way more exercise than I would be behind the wheel of my small automobile.
4. It’s a lot cheaper to charge the battery than pay for gas (once you factor out the cost of the bike).
5. Upkeep expenses will be undoubtedly less than for any of our cars.
6. It can only go 20 miles per hour, so it’s pretty safe.
7. 50% of the bikes sold in Belgium are electric (source). They must know something.
8. Ironically, the frame color is very similar to that of my road bike, which I had custom painted a million years ago.
9. It was a super good deal, via Performance Bicycles – like less than half of what most electric bikes go for.
10. It’s fun.