That's a keitruck without regulations.

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. These have to be far quieter and don't pollute like cars. That's progress!

By all means, do criticise Amazon's treatment of workers and horrible policies in general. And yeah batteries are better than fossil fuels but still aren't the greenest. But IMO anything that brings the US closer to bicycle culture can't be all bad. Let's accept a win when we see it and keep pushing, yeah?

The posts about Berlin and Finland are inspiring, let's get others there too.

no AC and a singular water bottle. no protection for the driver either if someone decides to run up and drive off with it. Who thought this was a great idea?

Lmao at the helmet. This country is a joke

They've had a ton of these style of delivery vehicles around Berlin for years now. They work great, are really quiet, and solve the vast majority of last mile delivery needs.

That said, the one in that photo is huge. I've never seen one even close to that size. The ones around here look more on this scale:

We have quite a few companies in Germany using similar vehicles in cities (I can't compare the sizes here). All in all it's a positive development. Maybe in this case it's a way to utilize a legislative loophole, but even then I would say: The loopholed law has a positive impact if the new vehicles are smaller and more energy efficient than the ones they replace.

Meanwhile in Germany:

Loopholemobile, oh yeah for sure, still waaayyyy better than a whole ass SUV.

I don't think these are a problem. They deliver mail and parcels with kind of similar vehicles here in Finland, though I grant that ours are a little bit smaller.

If there's a problem with these, it's that legislation doesn't properly recognize a class of vehicle smaller than a car but bigger than a bicycle. That's not to say these vehicles shouldn't exist, and stuff like this rightfully shouldn't have to follow the same rules cars do (because, well, it's a lot smaller, lighter, quieter and slower).

I'm fine with these as long as they don't use the bike lanes. Nothing with more then two wheels should use the bike lane because:

1. You can't pass them or let them pass you
2. They seem less safe. They aren't quite car levels of soundproofed bubble, but they have significantly less awareness then a bike since you cant see behind you without a mirror. They are also going to weigh a lot more and the more mass going into a crash the worse it's going to be.

The shit us Americans will do to not just fucking use Kei trucks like the rest of the world.

Why the world doesn't switch to mostly vehicles like this is fucking dumb. Hate amazon but support more vehicles like this.

Strong Flintstones energy

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?

Let's just put pedals on an F-150 Lightning and call it an e-bike.

At least it isn't racking up tens of thousands of hours of pollution emitting idle time like the gas vehicles.

If people would stop buyung shit from Amazon this wouldn't happen. I can't believe so many folks don't care. People I know still get stuff from Amazon. It's like talking to a brick wall.

I would love to see those taking over the streets, but I would hate to see them in the bike lane.

Capitalism, uh, finds a way.

Pretty sure all that bullshit is so they can use bike lanes, hence the helmet

thats so funny, they cant include a steering wheel and the driver has to performatively rotate their legs :DD

"It doesn't have to be crash certified if it's a bike"

Obviously Amazon is only interested in these as an opportunity to inflict further cruelty and exploitation upon their workers while flaunting regulations, but even beyond that there is a bigger issue here regarding the absence of space for something between bikes and cars.

The thing about electric bikes is that they are a wonderfully deep well of loophole nonsense, this cuts both ways TBH. Right now, the American road is just too generalized, with not enough separation of regulation, infrastructure and spaces to accommodate different niches. Instead everything is forced to exist in a single framework, which is built to match large, highway capable, trucks and cars. It is a cataclysm of needless gigantism that wastes energy, space, and lives.

Having a separate category of smaller, lighter vehicles that are less dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists, with lower energy usage, looser licensing and smaller footprints is needed. But you can’t have them operating alongside normal cars/trucks, or regulated in the same framework. The carveouts around powered pedal assist vehichles, and the growing network of bike infrastructure, created space for these kinds of middle vehicles to start coming in to existence, but there is a very real risk that they’ll push out light vehicles like bikes( including those with reasonable powered pedal assist) for the same reason they’re not practical alongside trucks and cars. They will get people killed, both other people in bike lanes with them, and their own operators. There will have to be regulation, and that regulation will ether push this deeply needed middle ground vehicle out of existence, or kill the growth of bicycles.

I think the real solution here is to formalize a regulatory standard for these kinds of middle vehicles, kick them out of bike lanes and off of side walks, and heavily restrict highway capable cars/trucks from dense areas like urban cores to give the middle vehicles somewhere safe to operate.

“Oh but if I can’t drive my suburban assault vehicle straight in to the middle of the city, my hundred mile a day commute would be very inconvenient” drive to a park and ride and take the metro(DC area in this context) in, for the areas where that’s not practical yet, we should build more light and commuter rail.

Its a van not a car. So it doesn't need to be automatically fucked.

Assuming it's not delivering frivolous crap and is carrying stuff people actually need then it's fine.

When they start coming in bike lanes and up on the pavement then fuck them. That's when vans can get fucked too.

Ngl, I kinda want to get one to transform into a camping trailer. Become a traveling tea monk.

It doesn't belong on the fucking road or on the bike path.