Greg Beato on Electric Bikes and the Future of Alternative Transportation

Remember when our car-free future was supposed to be powered by jet packs, transporters, and family-sized flying saucers? That happy postwar vision has long since devolved from Jetsonian utopia to post–peak oil apocalypse, a new Mad Max era of economic collapse and medieval brutishness. Thankfully, writes Greg Beato, we have a new generation of electric bicycles to ride. While electric bikes can't quite match the autonomy and convenience that yesteryear's imminent dream machines once promised, they do suggest a future marked by technological progress and greater individual freedom.