Oh, I just checked and I was wrong. I pay $61/month to Progressive for liability on a >20 year old small pickup truck in California. $100k per person, $300k per accident, in case I crash into a pile of Ferraris or something.
The liability is $50/month but uninsured motorist insurance is most of that additional $11.
I'm paying for insurance in case I get hit by someone who doesn't have insurance? Ridiculous.
That's wild. I pay less than $500 a year for like $100k in liability insurance. Maybe I'm just old and have a good record.
Do you have tickets?
Even about 25 years ago, $1000 would get you a car without major cosmetic damage but it'd have a couple hundred thousand miles on it. You can still get that for around $3k today. I see them on craigslist right now. Where I live, minimum wage has increased 2.5x since then.
There's your beater for roughly the same number of minimum wage hours worked.
I can currently find a bunch of used, decent Toyota corollas in the 7-10k price range. Liability insurance should be like $50/month.
Your estimates seem quite high to me.
You make some good points: An ebike is nearly a moped. Ebikes are less beneficial to health vs a solely human powered bike. Fat people should lose weight. "Analog bicycle" is a silly term.
I can see how in your region, ebikes may be less welcome/beneficial.
However, where I am, when I see an ebike on the street, they're usually replacing a car or some big stupid SUV and that's absolutely a net win. They make a transition from car-centric transportation to something halfway between a bicycle and an electric moped a viable option.
It will probably take some time for regulations to catch up but many places already have rules for ebikes. For example, in California, class 1 and 2 are only allowed to go 20 mph (32 km/h). Class 3 can only go 28 mph (45 km/h) and only via pedal assist, rider must wear helmet and be at least 16 years old, aren't allowed on bike paths.
What are the reasons for your distaste?
Hardly anybody wants to ride an analog bike. Yes, it's because we're lazy. People would much rather ride around in their comfortable cars, with their stereo, radio, heater/ac. However, ebikes make bicycling an efficient, viable option that doesn't suck.
Even if ebikes replace some non-ebikes, ebikes are more efficient. There is a slightly greater environmental impact from producing the food to supply the calories to pedal the analog bike than there is from producing the electrical power to charge the ebike.
I you compare the impact of an ebike to an ice or an electric car, it isn't even close. The ebike is far superior.
I do have a motorcycle as well, since you asked.
Why an ebike?
Some sources claim it is actually the most environmentally friendly method of transportation, even when taking manufacturing into account. Over its lifetime, it creates less pollution than bike riding or walking, if you assume the person isn't a vegetarian.
Cost per day to commute 8 miles each way on the ebike is roughly $0.50 and roughly $5.00 for my 25 year old Toyota Tacoma, considering all costs.
I also enjoy riding my ebike and it has some health benefits. I don't just sit on it like a lazy bum who is riding a slow motorcycle. I pedal with moderate effort and can get to and from work feeling like I got some exercise without arriving all sweaty and gross. Riding this distance on an unpowered bike before and after work would fucking suck.
Is the lower speed a disadvantage? Yes but only slightly. I could get to work in about 15 minutes driving vs consistently about 22 minutes on the bike. Although the top speed is only about 28 mph, im nearly always going top speed. There are a few places where I have to stop for lights but at these intersections, I generally catch up with the cars that passed me earlier. Unless you're getting on the freeway, the bike is only barely slower.
Absolute ghouls
When I ride my ebike to the grocery store or to work its pretty much always replacing a trip I would have taken in a car. I'd say it replaces about 20% of my trips. There is close to zero chance I would have used a non-ebike to have done the same.
I don't know how the timing of each release is planned but the Firefox website gives instructions for using the repositories for esr, beta, nightly, or dev edition.
Using Debian as your distro doesn't lock you into firefox ESR.
And that the majority of that output is being hoarded by those who already have far more than they can ever use.
Janky but if it works, it works.