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:arm-L::train-shining::arm-R:
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LANDLORDS COWER IN FEAR OF MAOTRAIN
"that train pic is too powerful lmao" - u/Cadende
The cycle rickshaw, which is a variant of a cargo bike is quite common in Asia. The price for a new one ranges from $100-500. Meanwhile, a bike with elongated rear rack, e.g., a longtail cargo bike (barely counts as cargo bike) can cost $1,000 in the West, and that is the entry level "cargo bike." A front load cargo bike costs $2500 and upwards. An Urban Arrow (tm) cargo bike can cost a whopping $6-7k.
I realize this is tangential but:
At least right now (tariff pricing doesn't seem to have kicked in yet) ...
You can get a decent motorcycle for not that much more than what OP cites as a front load cargo bicycle cost, and less than an Urban Arrow cargo at 6k to 7k.
'Royal Enfield' is actually the longest continually operating motorcycle mfg in the world, based out of Chennai...
... if you're in the US, you can most likely fairly reliably find at least a few 2 or 3 yr old barely used ones near you between $3k and $4k, hell you might even be able to find some unsold new inventory as low as $3.5k.
They aren't massive speed demons... but they are pretty reliable, well built, and straightforward in maintenance terms.
If you put side panniers one on of these, and maybe jerry rig the rear part of your seat into a cargo mount, or use an aftermarket solution for that... thats a comparable amount of storage to many of these:
https://bikexchange.com/best-cargo-bikes/
I would absolutely love to have a fully electric solution, but so far, fully electric motorcycles are still fairly niche and quite pricey...
And if you have about $5k to spend on a transportation method?
At least with an ICE motorbike you're getting better MPG than even most "affordable" hybrid cars.
And a lot more roads you can drive on and a higher top speed than ebikes.
I am not actually sure if like... per capita of people in America who commute daily to work via Bicycle or Motorcycle, which of those is more or less likely to get murdered by the average American in their Sherman tank sized SUV/truck, but I am reasonably sure most serious Bicycle and Motorcycle commuting accidents are caused by other idiot drivers in cars.
EDIT: I think you can also find some lightly used CFMoto motorcycles nearing as low as $3k, and if you bump up to more like $5k, now you're also looking at pretty decent Kawasaki, Yamaha, Honda entry level motorcycles as well, depending on your location / how hard you look.
CFMoto is made in China so... they're probably gonna get uberfucked from tariffs :(
The problem is that motorcycle by far has higher death rate per mile traveled in US roads, moreso than bicycle because US drivers are just so not accustomed to motorcycles, and the road infrastructure is not built for motorcycles.
Doing a simple things like unprotected left turn is sketchy AF on a motorcycle. You make your turn sign, look behind, can't see through the tinted windshield of the cars behind you, and make your move, just hoping that the car behind you is not distracted by phone, fiddling with car settings, etc. Even when you are imposing yourself on a road, taking a whole lane, because how small your footprint is, some dumbass cars will still try to pass you. Even if you are not involved in a crash, the flying projectiles and debris from car crashes around you due to cars not knowing how to drive around motorcycles can take you out. Also a lot of multi-use bike paths purposely exclude gas motorcycle because how loud and fast they are (understandably, compared to ebikes).
I love dirtbiking, and the most dangerous part by far is sharing the road with cars going to the trails.
I completely agree that being a motorcycle driver is way, waaay more dangerous than being a car driver... as you say, because road infrastructure sucks, and most american car drivers seem to just have a selective blindness that makes them not see motorcycles... and you don't have a car protecting you from a collision or random debris.
But... I tried wording of my original post this way...
Basically, bicycle infrastructure fucking also sucks.
Very few places have actually protected bike lines, and a bicyclist making a blind left in the middle of a city, even from bike lane to bike lane, is still just as potentially fucked as a motorcyclist, perhaps moreso accounting for their generally lower level of personal outfit protection (bike helmet vs motorcycle helmet, etc).
Your graphic there doesn't include bicycles.
It would be interesting to see what that metric would be for regular bicyclist commuters, who aren't using like... park/trail bike paths, but are having to deal with either mostly shit tier bike lanes or sidewalks to get to and from work.
I know some cities have actually useful bike only paths, or truly protected bike lanes that can help you get to work... but most don't, in the US, or at least they are sparse and not present for all or even most of an average commute.
... As far as I can see, nobody actually tallies up US bicycle miles traveled, so you can't do the same comparison of fatalities per mile traveled.
I am seeing that in 2023 there were 1377 fatalities, and 937 of those were a collision with a motor vehicle.
I am also seeing that historically, the absolute number of motorbike deaths vs bicycle deaths per year is ... well, the proportion is roughly steady at about 6 motorbike deaths per bicycle death.
It could be that basically there are about 6x as many motorcyclists as bicyclists... or maybe 3x, and motorcycling is twice as dangerous as bicycling...
You'd have to actually have apples to apples data to do a reasonable comparison, and as far as i can tell... that data doesn't exist.
Like yes, motorcycles go much faster than bicycles, which is more dangerous... but you have to actually get a specific motorcycle liscense to drive a motor bike... you don't need any for a bicycle.
And every cyclist is basically equally fucked from being wiped out at an intersection or in a busy urban street where a car driver just doesn't see you or pretends you aren't there even though you are very easily visible and in their field view.
???