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Where do the children play?

(unpublishablepapers.substack.com)
409 points casca | 2 comments | 16 Nov 25 13:45 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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retube ◴[17 Nov 25 08:49 UTC] No.45951914[source]▶
As a parent, I relate to all this. Great piece.

When the kids were babies we had the standard debate of move to the countryside for fresh air and gambolling in the fields etc. But so glad we stayed in London, the kids have so much freedom with public transport they can organise their own meet ups and activities and go running around all over town without any parental assistance or intervention at all. Whereas elsewhere we'd need to drive them everywhere, they'd be stuck at home way more, they'd have no real agency in their lives - I grew up like that and hated it.

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ensocode ◴[17 Nov 25 09:05 UTC] No.45951995[source]▶
I can relate. Nice article. We had that same debate and ended up moving to the countryside. Surprisingly, it worked out well. + real forests. With today’s e-bikes, even hills or longer distances aren’t really a blocker for kids anymore. In the end, it feels like the bigger factor is how you organize daily life, not whether you’re in a city or in a rural area.
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jimbob45 ◴[17 Nov 25 09:09 UTC] No.45952011[source]▶
Whitewashing motorcycles as e-bikes scares me more than anything else for the next generation.
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goodcanadian ◴[17 Nov 25 11:03 UTC] No.45952538[source]▶
Legal e-bikes are fine. The ones you are complaining about are probably illegal, not that there is any real enforcement.
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mlrtime ◴[17 Nov 25 11:16 UTC] No.45952625{3}[source]▶
Serious Q: What is the fundamental difference between a legal and illegal e-bike. This largely is differentiated by the location but I don't know what illegal e-bike means.
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1. strix_varius ◴[17 Nov 25 21:09 UTC] No.45958332{4}[source]▶
E-Bikes are sold & regulated in "classes" (at least where I live in the US).

A class 1 e-bike is pedal-assist and stops assisting beyond 20mph (mine, for instance, tapers off starting probably around 15 mph).

A class 2 is the above, plus a throttle.

A class 3 is anything that assists over 20mph. The "basically motorcycle" set exists here.

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2. shkkmo ◴[17 Nov 25 22:05 UTC] No.45958902[source]▶
Your class 3 definition is inaccurate. Class 3 is limited to 28mph and cannot have a throttle, only pedal assist.

Anything that doesn't fall in one of those classes is a motorcycle that is not street legal and can only be rudden of private property (unless you can convince your DMV to give you registration as a motor vehicle.)

This can vary somewhat from state to state, but most states have adopted or are moving to adopt these classes.