UK’S PURE ELECTRIC TO CLOSE BRICKS AND MORTAR STORES AND FOCUS ON ONLINE E-SCOOTER SALES
The UK’s Cycling Industry News reports that Pure Electric is to close the majority of its UK stores. The company is known primarily for its own-brand scooters but the article details ‘a strategy shift that will now see the business refocus its energy specifically on the electric scooter marketplace, the sector upon which the business was founded’ – in other words selling e-bikes is no longer part of its plans, nor are bricks and mortar stores.
It seems at least possible that another company will buy the stores and continue selling high-end e-bikes that Pure Electric stock from the likes of Specialized, Cube, Tern and Brompton. As CIN says ‘Though no names have been declared, there is a trend in the bicycle industry for brands to open own-label retail stores, either by acquiring existing retailers, or by securing prime retail locations in key shopping districts. Trek, Specialized and PON are currently rapidly expanding their owned portfolios in the USA and there are signs that the behaviour is increasing in Europe.’
E-BIKES (STILL) NOT THE PROBLEM IN NYC
E-bike scare stories are a common standby for some journalists who clearly think fear sells. So it’s nice to have empirical evidence that e-bikes themselves don’t cause accidents.
Streetsblog reports on the wildly popular “free lunch” promo sponsored by Grubhub a month ago in NYC which meant e-bike delivery drivers were incredibly busy due to the upsurge in demand it caused.
‘Despite fear mongeringincluding from influential pols who claim that e-bikes and mopeds have unleashed a “bloody battle” on New York streets, the number of crashes recorded by the NYPD on May 17 — the day the food delivery app’s “free” lunch unleashed deliveristas criss-crossing the city between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. — was consistent with other days that week, and even fewer than the day after.
That Tuesday, there were 311 crashes across all five boroughs — just 15 more than the day before, 22 fewer than the day after, and nine fewer than the same day the year before, which was a Monday, according to the city’s Motor Vehicle Collisions database.
And, in fact, just 47 of those 311 crashes involved a bike, e-bike, or any type of moped — up just one from the same day a year earlier. The remaining crashes involved drivers behind the wheels of multi-ton vehicles like cars and trucks, for reasons including “Failed to Yield Right-of-Way,” “Following Too Closely,” “Driver Inattention/Distraction” and “Backing Unsafely,” according to the database.’
As Streetsblog says ‘proof, yet again, that delivery workers’ e-bikes are not the problem on city streets.
Source link
