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Guests: Ed Benjamin; Dr Tab Combs
I’ve spent the last two weeks pondering about inflation, gas prices, transportation, and of course how cycling fits into all of it.
When we spoke with Don DiCostanzo from Pedego a few weeks ago, you might remember our mentioning Ed Benjamin – one of the earliest adopters of the eBike.
He’s been on the show in the past, but I thought his input would be a great way to bring essential understanding of the whys of the eBike business to light.
Ed is not only well versed in the statistics of the eBike business, he’s become the go-to guy for fundamental training and essential information for technicians.
His breadth and depth of the subject as well as his observations about where the eBike fits in the bigger picture are compelling.
In the second half of the show, we bring back Dr. Tab Combs. Tab is a scholar of planning and transportation at the University of NC in Chapel Hill.
In contrast to what Ed Benjamin has to say about all the progress we’ve made for cycling, Dr. Tab Combs reminds us that there is a long way to go to not only upgrading our infrastructure, but re-imagining transportation from a planning and execution perspective. The exciting news is that it is happening.
40,000 people will die on the roads this year – many if not most of them vulnerable road users. It’s a number that should make us angry enough to demand change – but we know that just laments and demands don’t usually work.
When the pandemic hit, we had this euphoric sense of owning the roads. We were almost lulled in the possibility of being safe on streets that aren’t congested with automobile traffic and almost were able to forget the vitriol it brings with pissed off drivers.
But now, we are in crisis mode with the pandemic still looming, higher inflation, and rising gas prices. We’re even looking at short term solutions for long term problems – things such as tax holidays and cash payments to car owners.
What needs to change and how can we use the available resources to influence that change? Where is the money to make these changes OR do we have our priorities out of whack?
Here is the information on the April 22nd-23rd workshop, “Flipping the Switch On Traffic Violence. :