Speed record of a velomobile: 144 km/h https://www.aerovelo.com/eta-speedbike
We don’t need any knew infrastructure, we just need to get cars out of the way
The idea of needing specialized transport as an individual beyond just walking is a failure of society. Replacing cars with “not-cars” isn’t really helping that aspect. You should be structuring society so that cars or “not-cars” have no need to exist for almost everyone.
Someone versed in urban ecosystems could chime in better, because there’s gotta be proper terms for city to city transport, city to neighborhood, neighborhood to street, street to home.
Bikes or some kind of personal vehicle are still probably necessary to get you from city to home, because they can’t put train stations next to every house (unless they figure out how to shoot us through tubes or something).
@dessalines @PowerCrazy No, it really is feasible to have PT close enough to everyone’s house. Some will choose a bike to cut 15m walking into 5m riding, but it isn’t required.
Part of that is that every neighbourhood needs all types of housing. Okay, not every one needs high rise apartments. But medium rise next to the station above the restaurants and retail, surrounded by town houses, surrounded by units, surrounded by 1/3rd acre house blocks
It really isn’t crazy
Utopia needs many changes
Indeed, and currently there exist several cities that execute that ideal more-or-less. NYC is the obvious one, but Washington DC, Chicago, hell even the worst city in America, San Francisco does it adequately. The only reason we can’t have that kind of public transit everywhere is because no one is forcing city officials to plan for the long-term, and reduce sprawl.
Zero Growth Lines are a great way to mandate density, without any other policies needed.
I’d be happy just having bikes be viable as an individualized transportation method. I’d much rather a 30-minute bike ride than a car ride every day
I rode my bike instead of driving today. It took twice as long, and the hills kicked my ass, but I felt amazing afterwards. Evem hours later I am still riding the endorphin high. Hearing traffic used to give me anxiety, but I used noise cancelling earbuds so I could listen to an audio book and that made a huge difference
The transition needs to be easy for adoption to happen though. I think first replacing cars with not-cars, and only then scaling cities to be more walkable makes sense.
I don’t see how going from car to proper city planning is any harder than going from not-car to proper city planning. This just feels like an extra unnecessary step that could be taking resources away from the city planning part.
If you make a city hostile to cars first, people will still have their cars and their commutes, it will just double the time it takes for them to get anywhere. You will lose support for any further changes.
If you replace the cars first, such that no one’s daily schedules are significantly altered, and then condense the cities, then the change might be less jarring for those who can’t weather dramatic changes in their lifestyle.
Both the velomobile and the electric bicycle increase the limited range of the cyclist – the former optimises aerodynamics and ergonomics, while the latter assists muscle power with an electric motor fuelled by a battery.
The electric velomobile combines both approaches, and so maximises the range of the cyclist – so much so that it is able to replace most, if not all, automobile trips.
Why aren’t we all driving around in these things?
Because both Cars i own were cheaper than buying one of those, atleast where iam. I quite literally can’t afford one.
I didn’t check the price before … Yeah here in germany you’d get, a pedal only version, for around 12.000 Euros ( + 250 Euros delivery )
In Sweden people generally dont drive around in dinosaur-sized car, but they have been increasing lately. Yesterday I had my first personal experience of how much of an issue they are. I was in line for a left-turn in a crossing and noticed that the last car from the opposite side was also gonna turn left. The 2 cars in front of me already crossed the road and head left, i drive forward just a moment later than the huge RAM from the other side and notice a Nissan Micra that is heading straight towards me instead of turning. It was completely hidden behind the monster car and neither me nor the drivers in front of me in my lane had noticed it. Cars of that size not only endanger pedestrians by not seeing them but also obscure general traffic scenarios. They should not be allowed on the street tbh…
I feel there’s probably some reasons they haven’t become popular.
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Don’t turn as nimbly as a bike
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Can’t put them on your shoulder and carry them indoors, onto a train, etc. like as a bike
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Don’t climb hills as well as a bike (source)
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20× the cost of a bike, maybe that could be brought down by economies of scale if they were more popular
I could imagine a velomobile being preferable if you’re commuting from a satellite town to the city, and the journey consists of a long straight road.
I’d definitely say they’re worse for getting around the city, and their comparative advantages are bought at the price of significant extra overhead.
I’m not sure the bike is the accurate comparison target compared to the scooter or car for commuting. Also, I think the main reason they are not so popular is laws. I think there was another article on solar.lowtechmagazine where this was discussed, but from my fuzzy memory, the issue there is not yet a separate category for these kinds of high speed limit, electrical assistance vehicles. You either have to use it like a bike, in which case in many countries you are not allowed to go past a low set speed limit (something like 30 km/h) with elecrical assistance, or you have to register the vehicle to be in the category of motorbikes, in which case you are subject to the same rules, like having a license plate, needing to get your vehicle checked at the garage every year and other things. Maybe try to find the article, it will be better explained.
@ertai @frightful_hobgoblin Registered as a car may mean adding airbags, passing crash safety tests, etc. It all depends on where you are.
If you need to pass all those car tests you can’t be a velomobile any more, you have to be a car. Someone was making a modern electric Moke, which sounds like a fantastic vehicle, except it wasn’t legal in many places because it couldn’t pass modern safety regulations.
(Heck postie bikes aren’t legal in Australia any more because they wont add dual ABS)
You should discount all impairments caused by oil industry lawfare against velomobiles.
https://xfwnofqagsnmdxuf.quora.com/Lawfare-against-tiny-cars-velomobiles
Velomobiles are neat but the idea is more practically executed in something like the Electrom LEV
This seems like something you don’t want to use on a road with cars. Otherwise it looks neat!
the biomass powered motor, also known as the driver
okay that’s funny