"The article by Shai Oster (Wall Street Journal 1/19/10) on “E-Yikes! Electric Bikes Terrorize the Streets of China” emphasizes that traffic fatalities have been growing as more electric bikes are on the streets. However Oster neglected to compare those numbers to fatalities caused by other vehicles. USA motor vehicle traffic fatalities are around 20 per 100,000 vehicles (40,000 annually for the 200+ million vehicles on the road) compared to 2.5 per 100,000 electric bikes in China stated in the article. The article says China has 90,000 traffic fatalities but that is for a vehicle population of around 30 million or 300 per 100,000. This higher number is understandable as car use is a recent phenomenon in China. Thus electric bikes are safer than gasoline powered vehicles on a fatality per vehicle basis.

The reason for the big difference in fatalities is electric bikes are lighter and vehicles are much heavier so have more kinetic energy to dissipate in a collision. Kinetic energy is a product of mass and velocity squared. Take EB + rider weight of 200 pounds (50 pound EB + 150 pounds for rider) and speed of 20 mph. Take car weight 4,000 pounds, with driver, and comparable speed 20 mph. Calculation shows that the kinetic energy of the car is 20 times higher than the bike with rider. Cars travel faster of course and at 30 mph car kinetic energy is 40 times higher than the EB. Thus it is understandable that car collisions will cause more damage to vehicles and passengers when compared to a much lighter bike that has much much less kinetic energy to dissipate in a collision. This is confirmed with the statistics on fatalities..."

Prepared by Frank Jamerson, Ph.D.
Naples, FL
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What is the best way to educate people about LEVs, especially since the publics’ awareness is nearly “zero”?

Light Electric Vehicles is a broad term. It includes one, two, and three wheelers, with a wide range of configurations and uses. But the most common vehicle at this time is an electric bike.
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