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Image description:
Text: Amazon's electric cargo bikes have arrived in DC.
Image: A four-wheeled vehicle that appears to be a cross between a bicycle, a go-cart, and a mini-truck
Response text from high t alpha shemale @gluetaster: that's not a cargo bike man that's a loopholemobile
Aren't these still a whole heck of a lot better than cars?
Not for the people they're now sharing a bike lane with, and not for the driver in bad weather or if they get crashed into.
For the environment, yes, but Amazon are doing it to avoid licensing, vehicle registration, and insurance costs, and putting workers at higher risk while doing so.
Yes... on roads.
It really depends though if their weight per wheel surface area is higher than a car per surface area it could still cause more damage to roads and using these on bike paths not designed to support motor vehicles (such as mulch paths) will likely destroy those paths.
They're also a visibility hazard. Bike paths aren't designed in roadways to have an 8x5 visual obstruction in them. This could endanger cyclists, pedestrians and drivers due to visual obstruction (which is already a problem with giant trucks and SUVs). You could mitigate this by requiring them to have like a blinking yellow light like we do for oversized highway traffic.
As far as climate, environmental and oil pollution. These are probably pretty good. They aren't going to generate the level of toxic runoff and air pollution ICE cars will.