Image description:

Text: Amazon’s electric cargo bikes have arrived in DC.

Image: A four-wheeled vehicle that appears to be a cross between a bicycle, a go-cart, and a mini-truck

Response text from high t alpha shemale @gluetaster: that’s not a cargo bike man that’s a loopholemobile

Edit: I found a slightly higher-quality version of the image:

  • Asetru@feddit.org
    English
    21·
    13 days ago

    Guys… I know it looks ridiculous. But it’s really not that bad, imho. If those smallest cargo vehicles that are partly propelled by feet and (more, obviously) by a battery, that are tiny and slow enough to be used on wider bicycle lanes, actually replaced larger delivery vans and trucks… wouldn’t that be, you know, good?

    • insomniac_lemon@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      5·
      13 days ago

      I kinda get it, the pedals on the image shown seem a bit questionable and it does seem like a poor replacement for an electric < Kei truck / Tuk-Tuk >. Maybe with very light cargo and very good (expensive) gearing/drive-train, but that’s really stretching benefit-of-the-doubt. I could see stuff like that making more sense for special-use stuff like catering, moving, low-density waste transfer, or any sort of food-truck thing (that needs empty space) etc.

      Compare it to something that looks more reasonable to pedal/handle like this:

      I’d imagine these 2 models would handle significantly differently when empty.

      Hope that image works, found by searching e-quad cargo. Also, made by Mumbea Mobility but I also see similar-sized models by Fernhay.

      • sem@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        2·
        12 days ago

        What we need is for society to recognize that cities do need some trucks for deliveries and allow them on roads in a limited way without allowing all the passenger cars.

        I could be wrong, but I think Paris allows small delivery trucks on streets during a certain time of day or in a limited capacity. In places that they don’t allow cars.

        Companies wouldn’t have to make small trucks like these that use the bike infrastructure if they could use the regular roads more easily without all the cars.