The Cat

This prototype vehicle

was constructed in order to demonstrate some of the ways in which “Pedicabs” can be re-configured, maybe even re-conceptualized, in order to make full use their potential. They are now operating in many other urban spaces, in countries across the world. In some, they are already being converted to electric operation en masse, by law, in order to help improve the breathable air. Attention to their siblings, cargo and delivery cycles, is expanding exponentially, with next hour/same day/next day service the rule now. It is time to think about this subject seriously, rather than dismissing it as a bit of strange overpriced, nostalgia.

The CAT is:

Only 40” wide, (it might like to be 48” to better accommodate side-loading wheelchairs), The city permits pedicabs to be 55” wide

Seven feet long, with an additional 40” for the foldable extension, which can provide for a second wheelchair or cargo use

Seven feet tall, in order to enable a 6’+ tall person to stand inside comfortably and provide some space for ancillary equipment

Depending on weather, is surrounded by clear polycarbonate windows, that can be folded away when not in use.

In order to maximize capacity, conserve space and provide for different postures, standing/leaning is possible and safe with restraints

It is steered with a tiller, and pedals provide some power, as well as controlling the speed, which maxes out at 15 MPH.

The roof is covered with solar panels, that can produce up to a third of the energy needed to move the vehicle during the day

The underside of the vehicle contains spaces for a number of re-chargeable batteries which can be charged in place or changed out

There will be a variety of services offered, Wi-Fi, device charging, telephone connecting, some now, some later

Operators of vehicles need to be very familiar with their territory and can profit substantially by providing job, space, and other help

Ideally there can be regular routes for vehicles, with ties to all local merchants and cultural and educational resources

Can serve on-call customer rides, wheelchairs, neighborhood and many other tours, cargo and freight, group rides

Wheelchairs can load from either side, the sidewalk, or from the back with a movable ramp to serve all openings

There needs to be room for up to 8 passengers in such a conveyance because sometimes there is that much need to fulfill

It’s called the CAT, because felines are some of the most interesting, engaging, loving, ferocious and ubiquitous fellow mammals

Also beautiful, puzzling, graceful, proud, individual, soft, as hard to understand as they are to dismiss, not unlike us, planet-mates

Leaping and pouncing, curling up and stretching out, demanding and self-possessed, mysterious and totally predictable, like us.

Passengers may ride standing
Passengers may ride sitting
Can be used for cargo
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The Half

A hybrid Human/Solar/Battery/Electric-Powered

NYC-legal pedicab (and potential cargo-carrying) vehicle. Ten feet long, four feet wide, and six-foot tall. It can be partially or completely open to the weather or totally enclosed. Its low platform, permits it to be both ADA-legal wheelchair and hand truck accessible, by a ramp, which can serve either sidewalk or the street. There are two potential pedalers, and room for four or more additional passengers. The shell is made of clear, weather-protecting, polycarbonate. There are 500 watts of solar panels on the roof. The comfort and safety of passengers are paramount. Can transform into a stationary source of local news at intervals.

I was one of the two founders, over 25 years ago, of this industry in NYC. Unfortunately, rather than an important, new form of transportation, pedicabs have come to exist, virtually entirely, as an expensive way to experience Central Park. The potential of this activity to provide the public with a needed new means of getting around the city, with huge environmental benefits and positive effects on healthfulness, was lost, when the taxi industry successfully lobbied to limit their impact on their industry. Many regulations need to be brought up to date. For instance, If they were to be permitted to be just a few feet longer than the current 10’, they could accommodate as many as two handfuls of people and ply regular routes, at a modest pace, as a supplement to the current options. They could be made unique, by artists and craftspeople from right in the City and its environs, even supplemented by creative efforts from around the country and the world. (Please take a look at the World’s Fair page that is adjacent to this one, as one possible way to further this idea.)

The very substantial, independent, and valuable employment created here can be in the form of individual entrepreneurs, establishing their presences, within geographically-defined communities, through their regular routes. This could be seen as a version of the traditional sidewalk newsstand, a conspicuous local statement about being a worker in, and therefore as a citizen of, a defined community. By becoming, perhaps the most knowledgeable person, about all of the businesses events and activities along their route, through the simultaneous posting of the very real and also virtual advertising, of real estate, employment, eating and entertainment and services, from legal to physical therapy, serious income, and status too, can be earned. Transport could even, eventually, be free (with tips allowed of course) if other income opportunities prove to be sufficient.

I call this design the Half because the rest of the story is still out there. It may be perfect in some ways to me, but it is not meant to supplant everything there and become the new standard. I hope it serves to do the opposite, a means to demonstrate the possibility of a wide range of the most different and exciting additions to the streetscape, while at the same time expanding fully-accessible transportation options and helping to develop a quieter, cleaner, and more beautiful city.

Less than half the size, (40 sq. ft. vs 18 sq. ft.), The Other Half is meant to provide a smaller scale, and similar in many ways, the complement to Half. The OH is personal transport, a big tandem trike, rather than this substantial object, that some might even want to call a mini-bus. I call it another missing link in the bike chain.

Straight ahead, all aboard, with a solar roof and fully accessible.
A pedaler, or passenger, who is also hand cranking.
The other driver who is guiding the vehicle, steering, and braking.
Somewhat fanciful view of the front wheel, bells, and lights and signs.
Rearview, including folded seats, and movable ramp.
Transit-oriented graphics are historical, colorful, apt, and durable.
6′, ADA-correct wheelchair/cargo ramp, and eventually publication cabinet.
Hand cranks feed energy into the battery, by passengers too eventually.
Comfortable, adjustable height, and displaceable seats in the middle.
The seats fold away when not being used and the height is chosen by the passenger.
View out the front has great visibility and emphasizes transit theme.
A representation of the profit-making aspect of this project.
This legal 10′ x 4′ NYC pedicab makes sense in the 21st Century.
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The Other Half

A Trike. 3’ x 6’ x 6’ tall.

It can be wide open to the air or fully enclosed in a folding polycarbonate shell. It may carry one, two, or three people. One drive wheel is an anchored-in-place, pedal-able unicycle, the two others are hub-motor equipped, electric-powered wheels. The vehicle can travel, facing either the three or the six-foot side, either tandem-style or the more sociable side-by-side. The seats, and wheels, all pivot and move, easily, to enable this to happen. Use in dense urban spaces is what is expected here, and at a maximum speed of 15-20 mph to ensure safe operation.

The wheels are all linked together so that when facing the six-foot side, with the pedaler steering, all the wheels turn together. When facing the 3’ side, the pedaler steers, and the back wheels go straight, as in all trikes. Batteries are stored under the vehicle, which can be charged in place or slide out like a drawer and be rapidly replaced. A solar panel acts as a roof as well as a source of power. When an opening above is preferred it can be temporarily stored, with the rest of the body, alongside the wall. Hinges are aluminum, covered by the colorful fabric. Closings are Velcro and magnets. Seats are well cushioned and sprung, mounted on tubes that are anchored to the floor. They can be adjusted for height and face any direction, as well as be tilted, to allow for the most comfortable, supported, standing/leaning posture, or made level. Drive wheels are under polycarbonate covers, both for passenger safety and comfort and to maximize weatherization when enclosed. These structures are part of the wheels’ “forks”, turn with them and help stabilize them.

Current regulations in New York State demand that electric bikes and trikes be no wider than 36”, thus this design. Careful study suggests a limit of 48” wide, or even up to 72”, with a corresponding stretching of the length to 10’ or so, will eventually be regarded, in crowded cities, as optimal for many purposes. For example, this would permit wheelchairs to be transported properly on such a vehicle, or several passengers or a healthy load of cargo to be accommodated safely and comfortably. The OH is meant to test the absolute minimum of space and materials that must be required to begin to accomplish these tasks. There are considerable benefits to exploring this, the lowest level of consumption and simplicity of design, as one answer that offers a wide variety of rewards. It is not necessary to consider this as the only or best answer to this challenge, but it is, rather, a suggested first step in the right direction.

There is a 3/4” plywood floor, to which are attached aluminum poles, and steel angles. Poles anchor additional aluminum tubes, keeping seats and wheels in their proper places. Has appropriate lights, mirrors, and all other necessary equipment. The polycarbonate cover can be deployed partly, as desired, and the entire shell folds flat and can be stored alongside the back, This can be used as a personal vehicle, or for carrying passengers or cargo, as it is, without major modification. A full-scale working prototype is under construction.

For all further information, please contact:

Email: StevenStollman@gmail.com

Tel.: 1 212 431 0600

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The Half & Other Half 1/2+1/2

How are these vehicles different from current transport and why does that matter?

Each suggests a different approach to designing and deploying our lightest and most accommodating, slow-speed, urban vehicles.

Each provides for the users to determine how much of a cover is being provided for an otherwise almost completely open platform, depending on weather conditions and other factors such as the desire for quiet or privacy.

One has a capacity of up to nine people, the Other only three, and maybe personal, passenger, cargo, or multi-modal. The Half provides for wheelchairs and hand trucks. A version of the Other Half could also.

Most users will be provided with resting places that permit them to choose their posture, recumbent, sitting, leaning, or standing.

Foot and arm cranks will enable energy to be generated, and channeled, into the electrical system, to be used when needed.

They use the least material to accomplish several important tasks, durably, beautifully, economically, sustainedly, and creatively.

One element of this effort is to design for, and have a strong effect upon, over time, the way in which these devices are deployed and the conditions under which they are provided to their operators.

Financing these vehicles, in a manner that enables the eventual ownership of them to be provided to users, is a common feature of the Halves.

Their uniqueness can give local identity to these conveyances and, over time, making them unique through their design and decoration, can emphasize local history and the identity of current residents, can transform these objects into a new medium of expression, education, and needed direct communication.

All local economies can benefit from having a live local employment exchange, a listing of local spaces to be rented, or even sold, offers to donate things that are being discarded, music being played, public and private services available within the vicinity, etc. which also incorporates a digital element.

Since there are three 1/3 day shifts available for the Half, it is likely that there will be groups of two, three, or more different individuals attending to one route. A mechanism for resolving disputes and a system for ensuring equitable activity will be developed. Means of enabling this arrangement could help foster similar, small group, local, beneficial, efforts.

The Other Half is a personal/3-person/pedal cab/cargo vehicle, which also has the ability to move forward in both its 3’ and 6’ directions so that it is possible to sit abreast instead of behind one another, somewhat more “sociable”.

While using advertising and commercial sponsorship as one means of gaining income from the operation of these vehicles, it is expected that these sources of income would be derived from local businesses and professionals.

These machines conform to current NYS and NYC legal regulations regarding these forms of transportation, are and perfect solutions to urban congestion, yet there is nothing resembling them on the roads at the present time.

Tip-only, free transportation along the regular route could be economically feasible if the income generated by other means is sufficient. Tours, place to place travel, and other higher income-producing activities can be blended in.

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Five’ll Get You Ten or Eleven

This human/solar/electric-powered vehicle

was originally going to be five feet long, for personal use or as a pedicab with one passenger.

In the process of being designed and constructed

As it was forming, it became apparent that making the second compartment a foot longer, and a foot wider, could carry a wheelchair as well, or additional riders. Upon further reflection, it was realized that the same polycarbonate, now acting as a ramp, could also be designed to convert into a platform and carry a number of additional passengers. When not in use, all of this becomes the entry door to the second compartment. The roof carries a solar panel and the entire vehicle is designed to be enclosed in a weather-protecting, clear, shell. Now, fully deployed it is 11’ long, but only 3’ wide.

There are intended to be two versions of this vehicle. One, as currently pictured, is largely made of aluminum and polycarbonate, both fairly expensive materials. The second is intended to use the same basic design, but to be constructed primarily out of available materials, wood 2x4s, etc. Both are slated to use $125 “transport” wheelchairs, employed to carry patients from their rooms to the curb as structural anchors, and wheels and pedals up-cycled from discarded bicycles. The more expensive version is intended for use in urban spaces throughout the world, all plagued by excessive traffic and the social and dangerous environmental damage being caused by our present system. The less expensive model can be used in those places with limited resources but the same needs for clean, comfortable, convenient, and economical urban transport. The construction methods are relatively simple and accessible.

In order to conserve space, and thus maximize capacity, users will be provided with a device that helps them be comfortable in a somewhat standing position, supported in a number of different ways. While sitting can seem perfect, part of the reason for this is our natural proclivity to relax but also we do it to go along with prevailing norms. We are compelled, from the youngest age, to accommodate ourselves to seated positions, at church, school, and the dinner table. Certainly, there are times when this is ideal, but we are bipedal creatures, and while we don’t climb trees much, we walk and run and stand around talking like this is our most natural posture. If we can be erect, with some modest support offered to our glutei maximi, an enhanced perspective, and other advantages can chime in, along with the health benefits.

Pedaling while standing is offered as an alternative on some currently available conveyances. Not only is it possible, but all cyclists sometimes stand on their bikes when going up a hill, racing, etc. Without additional support, this can be strenuous and is only done in bursts when needed. In order to make the best use of this situation, a device is being engineered which will enable the rider to suspend themselves in a comfortable and easy-to-use, harness. This enables the rider’s weight to now be distributed over a number of different places, feet, crotch, butt, midsection, forearm, and armpits, as well as hands. This has to be good for our joints and muscles. and for many, more enjoyable too.

There can even be arm-powered cranks available to passengers as well as the driver, to help propel this machine. Some people like to use every opportunity to get a little workout and it could provide serious satisfaction to know you are helping to move yourself. In any case, everything here is optional. Since the vehicles can be used without the driver pedaling, or cranking, on electric power alone, the whole idea here is to provide options. This device can be open to the air, like a bike, or totally enclosed against harsh weather. It can be used by a single person as their ride, or converted into a cargo/utility vehicle or pedicab. Allowing for a multitude of postures, from recumbent to sitting to standing is probably much preferred but seldom provided. We are used to being given our shape and expected to assume it. In reality, we’d much rather be offered a choice and given the freedom to make our own decisions.

If you’d rather be pinned to the pavement at 120 mph on the autobahn in your Maserati I understand why this makes no sense to you. If you’re not excited about what is currently out there, who could maybe use a way to make a living as an entrepreneur, and a way to get around, this might click.

I hope something like this can work, because, if the only way that they can find to save cities from strangling themselves with traffic is to let those who can afford it, keep their stretch limos humming, while they price all the small players out, that changes the definition of what cities, especially one like New York, are all about. If it is just the owning class and the servants, rest assured that there will be no room whatsoever left, for the wonderers and the wonderful.

Ten

Eleven 120″ x 42″ x 75″

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Multi-limb-propelled

Multi-posture Weatherized Trike

One version allows the rider to determine his posture when moving, from standing straight up to sitting or leaning or even practically lying down. Since maximum visibility is needed to provide safety, conspicuous extensions are deployed above the vehicles, aided by LEDs, to make certain that trucks, vans, buses, and cars are able to be aware of their presence at all times.

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The Task

There are some bikes everywhere now.

What is not there, are fully weather protected, stable and comfortable, up-to-date trikes. If vehicles are light enough, human power is relevant, and by using solar/electric assistance, travel can be pleasurable and healthful too. Until all of the relevant technologies evolved to this point, motors, batteries, controllers, etc., this advance was impossible. We have the tools now, to bring our bloated urban transportation systems, down to the Human Scale, to take a giant leap into a survivable future, and a much more beautiful and visually arresting place.

Most public spaces around the world have, historically, been monopolized by dangerous, oversized vehicles. The relevance of minimal transporters is now being acknowledged by City governments everywhere, and most of the public too. Whereas cars are too big, it is also true that hoverboards and scooters, even bikes, may be too small. They are all used, almost exclusively, only in fair weather. This is understandable, since cold can be magnified when you are moving, and rain is not much fun, and it makes pavements slippery and radically lowers visibility for drivers in dangerous, nearby cars. If every place were Copenhagen or Amsterdam this would matter less. Here and elsewhere, we have accustomed ourselves to a very high level of physical comfort though. We need vehicles that can be enclosed when necessary, and open when not, evolved designs that allow for group riding instead of just solitary, and as much artistry, creativity, and ingenuity put into these protective vessels as humanly possible.

Just as important as making it, is making it to last. There is a challenge, to make these things so they can well withstand the wear and tear of riding on rough roads, and that multi-person use of something is going to inevitably entail. There was a time when it was understood, that you made something to last as long as possible. Following that we had “planned obsolescence”, and trivial design changes to remain the “latest”. Now we need to go back to the original idea. Trolley cars lasted decades, even as they were updated and improved. Durability, especially when you are being punished by imperfect conditions, is crucial. It will also matter to have facilities that are able to provide repairs and improvements to a growing industry.

Safety matters greatly. Nobody should be expected to be harmed by the use of your product. Smooth loading and unloading of passengers must be assured. While in transit, users must be provided with comfort and ways of securing themselves to maximize their pleasure in this passage. No sacrifices are being asked for here. The point is to raise quality, access, and affordability, all at the same time by bringing things down to our “Human Scale”.

The street is also a theater. Sidewalks are full of audience members, and customers as well. Those operating these vehicles are putting on a show in which they are the star. The object is a stage and also a prop, a costume, and a statement. It cries out for lights and bright colors, to be as fantastic as it is practical. If it has been hired for a child’s birthday party it might assume one shape, if they’re for a wedding, something else. Have a Winter guise and a Tropical, a somber mien and a celebratory one.

An organization is being formed, which is intended to act as an expeditor, to instigate this activity everywhere, and help to expand the influence of this work. This effort is intended, partly, to ratify the good sense of using a kind of International Cooperative, as a model for taking action on urgent matters such as Extreme Weather. It is a way of exploring the energy that can be generated, by identifying one another, according to our interest in, and participation in, a relevant aspect of our common lives. This can be done by breaking down geographic and other nominal and irrelevant barriers to a peaceful, well-fed, and dignified population, able to move about freely and fully acknowledge each others’ humanity.

Along with agriculture, transportation has been scaled up, such that the consequences of the few players’ policies, are invisible to these immensities. Economies of scale can benefit us sometimes, but can also give all of the discretion to the largest factors, who will do anything to secure their status. A successful effort to radically improve the terrible working conditions under which those in this profession ordinarily endure may also help to make it possible for other groups, who are currently at the lowest end of the occupational ladder, to mobilize themselves, to generate the resources needed in order to improve their common lives.

The Big Fleet

The ultimate goal of this undertaking is the widest proliferation possible, the soonest, of the most environmental, healthy, unique, beautiful, and practical, human/solar/electric-powered vehicles. Some of these would be for-hire, passenger, and wheelchair-carrying models. Others would be intended for personal use, and still, others are designed to be used, primarily, to move goods. All of this is most suitable for dense urban environments since their speed would need to be limited, to maximize their safety for users and others. Making them no larger than they need to be, will permit more valuable space to be provided on often congested and crowded streets.

The expectation is, that as the public becomes completely comfortable with this needed transformation, the continuous acceleration of the process to replace the existing system, with one that is so much better, is assured. The durability of the objects produced must be of dependable and remarkably high quality. Their popularity, and the pleasure they provide, will make certain that nobody even pretends that they miss the old, deep-fake “ideal” system, that we had been convinced was our only alternative.

There is not enough room for the unlimited multitude of enormous trucks, buses, limos, delivery trucks, and private automobiles that jam urban spaces everywhere currently. Even if many of them were essential to our survival, they deny, rather than affirm, life. Adding fees has had a minimal influence on the volume of traffic. Even if some provide for needed services, while also representing a huge investment by their owners, they are, by and large, alienating, dangerous, bullying, toxic, homely, oversized, and out-of-place. To an infantilized population, all that activity may be fascinating and titillating, but the insanity of it is drowned out by its sheer volume and the zombie-like acceptance of all of this by the masses, propelled by media, all of which are addicted to the income earned by pushing consumerism.

The amount of time being wasted, the out-of-proportion helpings of food, and continuous noise, meld together and help to justify one another, to convince us that this is the only way. The disorientation that is the ordinary response to overloads of change, is to be expected. AI and the Pandemic are not just moving the goalposts, they are moving the poles. Horse stable owners at the turn of the last Century had the same problem. One had to do with sanitation, which biology rendered unsolvable. The other crisis had to do with the rapid increase in the scale of everything. Three-story buildings turned into 13, then 30, now 100+ stories. The success of cities is based on their ability to grow infinitely, giant black holes swallowing nearby stars, appearing to be inevitable. Unfortunately, this can fail to take into account the effect of all this change on ordinary people

Now that the effects of our common lifestyles are revealed to have been earned at the expense of the possibility of risking our survival on this planet, while also making an infinite number of other people miserable, recognition of the extreme danger that this distressing realization affords, is much closer. The remedies being offered to provide relief for this serious malady are very few and most are without sufficient effect to offer any hope of avoiding the worst of the looming alternative disasters. If the forests continue to burn, floods and droughts multiply, and the permafrost delivers enough methane to poison our atmosphere and render it unsurvivable, will the raising of MPGs by 2050 really matter? Even if it were 2040 or even 2030, this is the use of an umbrella in a hurricane. If there is a remedy here, it is going to have to arise out of the desperation of those many who realize the gravity of our situation and decide to devote some portion of their energies to meeting this serious challenge to our very existence.

There needs to be a wholesale re-evaluation of many aspects of our society, such as food, but the most pressing one is transportation, with its dramatic effect on our climate crisis. Soon, a fortune will be spent upgrading some transportation facilities, but almost all of it will be an effort to fortify existing bad habits while comforting the voting population that they will not tumble off their bridge any time soon. The amount devoted to supporting meaningful change in our behavior, which might provide us with some relief from the onrushing catastrophe that we are facing, will be minimal. There is no lobbying group with any major influence, that is asking the public to give anything up. That is not how you gain people’s support.

For that reason, the idea of generating an entirely new urban transportation system, based on lightweight, human, and solar/electric power, and, most importantly, creative energy, is so important. We are born ingenious but discouraged from employing this faculty or even appreciating it in others. Everything we would ever need is already here, we are told, and our role is merely to be a proper user, if possible by employing no more than a finger or two. We need to be careful that the new medium of virtual reality doesn’t become the final nail in our coffin, as we are convinced to abandon this imperfect plane, for one filled with ersatz majesty and unlimited possibilities, no matter how unreal.

Getting two hands and two feet fully back into the picture at this stage will not be easy. Designing and making things that work, especially at the highest level of the craft, requires serious effort. Few people have the personal freedom to simply devote themselves to creating something, no matter how important it might be, and neglect their other responsibilities. Help has to be found to provide some assistance to those endeavoring to do this. This project needs a framework, to encourage the artists, engineers, mechanics, and others who can contribute to this process to step forward. Putting up rewards, prizes and the potential for acknowledgment will be needed, to gain attention and motivate participants. This must be done, hopefully, without selling the “branding” opportunity that supporting this project might provide, especially to those with sketchy environmental credentials, who could use this for the purpose of Greenwashing their ordinary activities. That “help” would undoubtedly trivialize this quest, even negate it.

If this all can be financed and promoted by individuals, genuinely interested, preferably smaller, businesses, groups, and relevant non-profits, even enlightened Transit Agencies, it can happen now, in many places at the same time, and be both serious in intent and joyous in spirit. It is notoriously difficult to launch efforts of this magnitude, without the cooperation and financial support of some large entity. The likelihood that it will be misdirected or exploited increases considerably though when there is an “overseer”, especially when the intent of this program is to initiate the widest assortment of designs and approaches, rather than consolidating influence and rewards in any one place. It might be somewhat more difficult to utilize a bottom-up strategy to gain needed support, but this is the same energy direction that a human-powered device like a bike uses, and maybe it should also be the one that propels the movement to expand its growth and impact.

The Pedicab Project

Bringing Pedicabs into the 21st Century, all the way from the 19th must involve a complete re-conceptualization of this opportunity. Factors include urban transportation, localization, entrepreneurship, and information. There is no historical model for this approach, and to some extent, it is now possible only due to recent advances in technology. In New York City, and in many places with similar density around the world, there is a need for the creation of a service such as this. It would:

Call for the construction of vehicles, fully accessible to wheelchairs, no larger than the 120” x 54” limits now in effect in NYC regulations guiding pedicabs. These conveyances would be fitted with movable solar roofs and wall panels which can be consolidated, when the weather permits, allowing the vehicle to be completely open to the outside, like a bike. At other times, all of these clear windows will be closed to provide for the comfort of riders.

Allow the use of these vehicles to be varied in the course of the day. There would be two or three operators of each vehicle since it would be operational during a long day. It would be available for very profitable tours, private passenger or package delivery, while a portion of the time, it would ply an established route. These 20-60 minute circuits would take it to local transit locations and other important features of their neighborhood. A serious attempt would be made to hold to an approximate schedule. Locals would come to expect this service to be available on a regular basis. Depending on the neighborhood and the desires of the operators, this would happen five times a day or 35 times.

Although it increases the complexity, the most beneficial use of this opportunity would involve vehicles plying regular routes, during part of the day, while providing a host of other helpful transportation and other services at other times. There are other informational and community-based assets that could be enhanced this way, through the design of appropriate vehicles and the establishment of the resources necessary to educate, orient, and deploy local entrepreneurs as specialists in public information. If you have the latest and best information as regards living and working spaces, especially shared ones, you are entitled to use this information to provide you with some income. The same goes for local jobs, services, and educational and entertainment connections. There needs to be a legal framework designed and implemented, a way for charges to be billed, for instance, a way to track the location of vehicles on missions, etc. These resources need to be put into place, to provide operators, everywhere, with the tools needed to fulfill these tasks, as part of a non-profit cooperative. A corresponding digital, online reference point, must also be put in place, to expand the reach of these activities. In time, this element could become one of the most important and profitable ones.

It is expected that local travel, on its regular route, could be offered at no charge, although tips would be invited. This unusual arrangement is possible if the earnings from real estate, jobs, advertising, private transport, and other activities turn out to be sufficient, to provide for a very substantial livelihood. This does not take into account the other potential ways, in which involvement in this profession could enhance lives. Becoming a relevant part of an ongoing community can open up other avenues, social and business connections, and access to positive situations and possibilities. One can become a roving, but also fixed, element of the surroundings. In fact, some time should be spent, by each vehicle, at suitable locations within their routes, so that they might be accessed by locals who want to provide them with relevant information or access it. This provides for a rest period, perhaps a snack, and closer interactions with the rest of the local community, including the provision of free terminals. Some literature can also be available, and some resemblance of this phenomenon to the city’s historic network of local newsstands can be established. Any local publications can be provided with an outlet, including some of the more esoteric, art, poetry, literature, etc.

It is understood, that operators would need to be helped to master the skills needed to make this a very profitable and satisfying way to make a living. They would also need to perform their duties to a high standard of excellence to be enabled to continue their efforts. The plan here is that successful operators would need to agree to spend a certain minimal amount of time orienting new operators and helping them succeed. The intention here is to form a community of operators, who will democratically establish the means to guarantee the high quality of these activities, while expanding the operations continuously, in order to enable more people to craft these meaningful opportunities, to improve their own, as well as everybody else’s, lives.

It is expected that those involved in this program would begin their careers as operators, after appropriate orientation, etc. to determine whether they enjoy and are suited for this work. Once they are established, it will be possible for them to begin to earn ownership of the vehicle and the business associated with it. Over time, the multiple operators of each location will have an agreement among them that outlines their responsibilities and possible rewards. This requires a high degree of responsibility and maturity and will need to be guided by a set of mandatory practices, and a process for dealing with situations where these regulations are being ignored. Without one fully-operational example of this actually working, it may be difficult to convince anyone that all of this is possible. Granted, there are many unique, and therefore as yet unproven, elements here, and the right individuals will need to be recruited, initially, to maximize the possibility that it will work well, but the quality of this opportunity is such that it should attract the best candidates to take it on.

This will be organized as a profit-making venture, partly under the jurisdiction of a non-profit entity. It is a business that, along with being profitable and relatively trouble-free, also has the goal of humanizing this activity, aiding the urban environment, and providing a full measure of dignity to those engaged in the enterprise. It is being designed to do this, while also helping to enable local communities everywhere, to find their own voices, and generate the best available means of providing the essentials of life to all of their inhabitants. One feature here is in the form of an ultra-local, Craigslist-style resource, that can guarantee that unwanted resources can find a home, and would be welcomed by everyone.

The Half is an NYC legal pedicab, designed with some of these functions in mind. Regardless of its excellent suitability, it is hoped that, over time, other highly individuated and attractive designs for these vehicles will emerge and be put into use. If created with respect for the unique surroundings that it plies, these designs can come to represent their individual streets and neighborhoods, their history, and special assets. As well as being the most useful objects imaginable, they could also become some of the most distinctive and beautiful ones as well.

Pedalcabs Now

Small-scale transportation, like bikes, is becoming more popular and, it is increasingly realized, essential, all of the time, especially for use in crowded urban spaces. Here though, instead of a 21st Century masterpiece of a people-carrying vehicle, we have an enlarged baby carriage. Along with the outdated, Colonial Era, humans as draught animals, and equipment, we have archaic laws to go with them, and practices as well. This type of vehicle has the capacity to be the most desirable, sensible, environmental, friendly, and appropriate form of short-distance urban travel possible, so it needs to be encouraged in every way possible, not subjected to crippling, senseless restrictions. While conditions vary in different places, needed changes in New York City include:

Small, clean, and quiet electric motors, must not be prohibited as a matter of humane working conditions. There is extreme, unhealthy difficulty in pedaling around with human cargo that could easily reach 500 pounds. Preventing access to this modest improvement is inexcusable. Besides, in spite of their being prohibited technically, 95% of New York City’s fleet of these three-wheeled vehicles already employ them.

There is an unfair and unnecessary limit to two or three passengers. If they are to be part of the transportation system, rather than a service limited to deep-pocketed tourists, it must be made economical. (The Boston system is currently free-of-charge and tips are sufficient to keep drivers happy.) It is possible, given the additional power available with the use of these small electric motors, to sensibly and safely convey 6 individuals.

More than one person should be able to supply energy to the battery/electric system at the same time. There are many riders who might enjoy the opportunity to get some exercise while riding along. Fitness means healthfulness and needs to be encouraged. If rewards can be provided to those putting in the energy being used to move ahead, that would go a long way toward motivating this activity. The current prohibition was initiated as a way to prevent “conference” bikes with a half dozen riders from operating in a dangerous fashion but was mistakenly applied to all other bikes as well.

If we are only moving at 15 MPH or slower, standing should be permitted. It is fine in trains and buses that go three or four times faster. Appropriate handholds and specially-designed places to lean can provide safe transport. In fact, many people would prefer to be somewhat upright, if given the opportunity, to feel stable and comfortable, and as an added advantage, it is economical of space. Security belts can be available and provided to those desiring one.

It must be unacceptable for drivers to get soaked or be frozen, while working, or otherwise subjected to dangerous and unhealthful conditions. They must be given proper cover and reasonably comfortable surroundings. People can not be regarded as “Coolies” or treated as draught animals.

There should be no limits on the lighting of the vehicles. Except for classic Yellow Cabs, no other means of transport is forbidden or required to look a certain way. Individuality and diversity need to be encouraged and owners should be helped to become positive contributors to our visual environment.

Not being able to pick up different persons, en route, prevents this service from realizing its most beneficial identity, as a form of public transportation that also does work as livery and for private purposes sometimes

Mandating a “Unibody” construction for pedicabs makes no sense, especially since cargo bikes are utilizing all forms of trailers and, are now proliferating through every city. Their ability to lessen the burden of too many oversized trucks clogging streets is being seen as a potential boon to urban traffic flow, and that goes for pedicabs as well.

Given that these vehicles are also a form of public service, and are relatively small and unobtrusive, they ought to be allowed to park overnight along suitable curbs in some selected places, to help enable their widespread and convenient use.

In order to lessen concern that drivers will rampage down streets using motors, a voluntary speed limit of 15 MPH may be agreed upon by all of those in the industry, to eliminate the need for regulation. The safe operation will be enhanced this way.

At least some of the fleet must be made wheelchair-accessible. One result of this would be the same vehicles that carry persons could use their design to also accommodate cargo easily and expand their money-earning possibilities and overall utility. Besides, it is the law that at least a portion of any fleet works to expand handicapped access. An entire fleet of wheelchair-accessible vehicles could be deployed citywide this way as a serious improvement to the current access-a-ride system.

One use of this opportunity, perhaps the most beneficial, would involve some vehicles plying regular routes during part of the day while providing a host of other helpful services. There are other informational and community-based assets that could be enhanced through the design of appropriate vehicles and the establishment of the resources necessary to train and deploy local entrepreneurs as specialists in public information regarding employment, real estate, education, and entertainment activity.

Failure to display rates properly should cause you to lose your permit if done more than once. Negotiated prices must be permitted but accompanied by a clear understanding of potential charges. The good reputation of this industry must be restored.

Eventually, there will need to be a great many more of these vehicles, preferably scattered throughout the five boroughs. This should happen once the existing regulations have been modified in order to make them as fair and beneficial as possible. This can be thought of as an important early step in the urgent need to re-frame urban transportation, down from the industrial to the human scale.

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The Future of Pedalcabs

The cargo business

has recently been revolutionized and the same is needed here. It will involve more than motors, dimensions and the number of wheels. In order for this profession to reach its potential to provide benefits to both its participants and the general public, the original stunted, politically-charged legal process that defined the field and set the conditions, must be started over. The importance of the climate crisis, the defeat of congestion pricing as a way to improve vehicle circulation, the advances in helpful technologies and the ever present need for healthy, dignified, profitable and beneficial forms of making a living, demand that this subject be treated seriously. It should not be about a nostalgia gimmick, with operators subjected to bad weather while their clients enjoy comfort and splendor, but rather an honest attempt to maximize the improvements to our public spaces that a real program could provide. Design competitions and robust community discussions must be part of this, along with whatever incentives, financial and otherwise, can be gathered and mobilized.

The negative aspects of the current situation must not be permitted to conceal the larger questions. Otherwise, there may be some improvement in the most negative elements of the picture, but no real structural change in the nature of this activity, its definition as a minor form of entertainment instead of a major form of transportation, an important spur to local community development, and a form of artistic expression. The potential to fuse private and public travel, wheelchair and elderly transport, educational and pleasure tours, cargo, delivery and other improvements in urban life, is well worth exploring. If all that is asked is to throw out the bums, that is all that will ever happen. Even if that were to be accomplished, which is far from a certainty, that will be a total waste of an important opportunity to do much more.

We could use the participation of academic institutions. Some different public schools and Universities need to be contacted and invited to be part of something. We have a lot of them here, especially New York based ones, all can be given a chance to participate in this. It is about engineering and art and urban space allocation, the environment and employment and entrepreneurial opportunities, tourism and disability transport. There are advocates in each area, nonprofits and famous pioneers in their respective fields. I believe that the seriousness of this effort will determine its efficacy and scope. Sure, demanding big, lit up license plates on current pedicabs and fair and enforceable regulation is a worthwhile goal, but it is also essential that the relevant co-factors in this urgent and important work be mobilized and encouraged to make their contributions to this task.

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Contacts

Steven Stollman:

Tel.: 212 431 0600

Email: steve@lightwheels.com

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In Pursuit of the Perfect All-Weather LEV

Late 19th-century ‘Socialable’ bicycles put riders side-by-side, unlike tandem bicycles. Modern examples are still being custom-made.

Oct 19, 2014

Times Article Viewed: 49086

Bicycles are great, but they have their shortcomings,

especially as the weather turns wet and cold. What’s needed to make them viable year-round are creative solutions that meld form and function into the perfect Light Electric Vehicle.

While there is almost no image more elegant or romantic than a person simply riding a bike, we are constantly entangled in innumerable schemes to wed us to something grand, a car, a nice big house, which is intended to inflate our sense of self and give us a greater sense of well-being. Seldom displayed is the ragged couple dragging themselves into that home, in that car, the lines of worry etched deeply into their foreheads, trying to figure out how they are going to make the next payment on these behemoths or finance a needed repair. Of course, the second home, or second car, has now entered the picture and how can the Jones’ ever keep up when it is only a matter of time before the next generations appear and begin to assert their right to all that the earth provides without limit? The Merry-Go-Round keeps spinning faster and faster and even historic floods and droughts are not enough to slow it down enough to get on or off without accompanying power failure.

Also see EV World’s interview with William Mulyadi on the Virtue enclosed tricycle featured at the 2014 Interbike show in Las Vegas.

Now that the school year is in full gear it may be instructive to project oneself back into the time when each of us was enrolled in one of these august institutions. Fitted with a bookbag, (now a backpack), we were dropped off, or made our own way, into a crowded classroom filled with kids just like ourselves, wondering if we would be able to do what was expected of us and meanwhile get along with the others. Another big issue was behavior. If the teacher was temporarily absent we spent the time ribbing each other over something trivial, an article of clothing or a new haircut or misspoken word and the wisecracks and teasing went on until the teacher appeared. Often, for at least some of us, that was not enough to stop the errant activity, but soon order was restored and the sound of chalk on slate brought us back into line. Some kids kept it up, as often as not, and had to be shushed or berated to sit down and behave themselves. Restlessness prevailed regardless since kids are naturally energetic and spontaneous until they have been tamed and disciplined into orderly automatons. Slowly, the pressure to conform and fit in is applied and few escape its gravity.

Most of us could not wait until the time between classes when we could have a few minutes to whoop it up and get to the next classroom. This varied from grade to grade and kid to kid and the rules of the school about talking and being restrained in our behavior, but the time gaps between sitting there, and being told not to move around too much and keep quiet and not disturb the class, were precious. Even more important, in the midst of all those calls for self-control, were lunch periods and recesses, where you could move about more freely and express yourself more completely, where you could, in effect, be yourself. Since we are all different and especially when it comes to how we regard and relate to others, this was a unique experience for each of us and could be troubling if you didn’t think you fit in quite right or had problems that few recognized or related to very well. Peer pressure starts early and has a powerful effect on all of us, although much more on some than others. Going along and doing well is the most important thing for many, while the opposite is true for a significant number of others and these patterns can continue for a lifetime for quite a few.

There are some factors that affect everybody in that class though. You must become comfortable in a seated position, facing forward and being as passive as possible. Sure, you need to answer a question if the teacher has one, although not too eagerly or often or the other kids will think you are a nerd or kiss-ass. Acting or speaking out of turn will earn you a reprimand and really outrageous behavior a trip to the Principal’s office. If you do it often enough you will get some pills to take and will be regarded henceforth as a troubled child in need of extreme discipline or worse. Order is what matters and going along with the program. There are too many bodies and not enough time to master the essential skills, reading, math, and comprehension, so there is no time or patience for being too spontaneous or expressive. This is a giant Viking ship and all of the oars must be pulled in unison or the voyage will be delayed or misdirected. We are being trained to be little conformists, to find our rightful places, and to fit in so that needed jobs can get done and good order preserved. Ergonomically awkward sitting down becomes more natural than standing or lying down. Or running.

Consequently, for many, sports becomes an important release. There is the ability to get physical at a time when the body is growing and vigorous activity provides an outlet for the energy that we possess in abundance and is always looking for a channel to express itself. There can be tension too, do you make the team, are you good enough, is your team a winner, but the participation alone is gratifying and healthy if it doesn’t get too competitive. The bad news is that recess is in a recession, takes away valuable time from studying for the standardized tests that teachers and principals are judged on, requires resources that are in short supply, and is being eliminated along with the music and art programs that experience shows do so much to motivate and improve attitudes. We are in a death spiral when it comes to providing a really well-rounded education along with memorization and drills. The impact on our mental health and ability to truly understand who we are and where we want to go in this life is being short-circuited and demolished by one-dimensional measurements and a lack of depth in these venues.

Why is it so difficult for this society to get the point about what matters the most and how to reach it? Mostly it comes from a lack of understanding of the nature of society and how it functions. A cab driver from Haiti last week, a hard-working fellow enjoying the music on his radio, commented about the life here and the lack of connections among people. His country, one of the poorest on the planet, with deprivation as common as sunshine, is a wonderful one to him he said because everybody regards each other as family. What is good for you is good for me. Here, we are all in a race, sometimes described as one between rodents, and what benefits your neighbor may mean that it is costing you. The media embraces this message and amplifies it until it is deafening. If your own kid is doing great, that is what matters. If your city’s team is winning you should be happy. If your country’s economy is improving, who cares if the other guy is in trouble. What is missing from the picture is the way in which your economy is dependent upon the others, that their problem is soon yours. If the educational system is producing mostly losers, unsuitable for more than the merest tasks and rewards, how long will it be before this malaise undermines your own kid’s fortunes? This lack of connectedness is fatal to the big picture’s health and so-called recessions elsewhere can easily turn into depressions here.

One way in which this process has evolved has to do with the wealth which is now in the hands of different races. We are now aware, following the economic disaster recently barely averted and still poised to swallow us all in its potential aftershocks, that the material holdings of those called “White” people, conventionally those descended from Europeans, is 20 times that of those we call “Blacks” or African-Americans. Latinos are only slightly better off. Is it any wonder that vast swaths of our population regard themselves as persecuted and unfairly treated? Certainly, it does denote a shocking disparity and distance from the egalitarian ideals that we are all taught to embrace and respect as part of the American ideal. Furthermore, does it come as a big surprise that the average person, of any race or nationality, living from week to week and enveloped in insecurity, feel immersed in worry?

Our habitual wasting of the material resources that have been provided to us, (whether or not we deserve them), is nothing compared with the waste of human resources that we perpetually witness every day all around us. It is so considerable that it barely scratches our consciousness. Nowhere is this more obvious than in transportation. Whereas one horsepower is enough to get us where we are going, we expect to have 200-300 to get the job done, without a second thought about all of the resources needed to feed that mighty herd. 80% of the time, only one-sixth of the seating capacity of the vehicle is in use. I can remember many long hours standing by the side of a windy or rainy highway wondering why nobody would consider sharing that empty space with a needy, non-threatening-looking civilian with his thumb hanging fruitlessly in mid-air. This machine sits idle 90% of the time and that is alright we compute since it is there when we want it, with nary a thought about who might really need it at that moment. It is giving us a wide variety of maladies, from heart disease to diabetes, kidney malfunctions, and bad backs, but we think it is an unalloyed blessing. We are deluded and living in a fantasy world constructed from TV commercials and smug assumptions of our superiority and dangerous fantasies in regard to the permanence of these conditions.

Lately, I have spent a lot of time making models of tricycles with a variety of features that are missing from our conventional forms of mobility. I wonder why, since we ordinarily avail ourselves of a variety of postures during a given day, from prone to standing, sitting, leaning, maybe even crouching, yet we have been conditioned to sit, the most unhealthy of them all according to medical authorities, almost all of the time. Your car, your desk, your dinner table, and train or bus, all demand that you assume this position and stay there. The conveyances that I am currently construing, permit the widest number of different body positions that are possible. When we get to school, past kindergarten, sitting is the only permitted way to position ourselves. We are not even given the choice between a tall stool and a conventional chair. We may not crouch or stretch out on the floor lest we get “dirty” or encourage undisciplined behavior. It is either follow the rules or get out. Instead of listening to our bodies, which crave some difference in attitude, we are commanded to obey, and we do. There is claimed to be an inner logic to this that we are too young and stupid to understand but really it is just for the convenience of the managers, who want to encourage “responsible” predictable behavior and will enforce their commands without fail.

The second element is the source of the motive power, conventionally either a motor or leg power. To these choices, I would like to add arm power as well. The “Rowcycle” is one example of this and I would add the choice of an electric-assist motor as well. The combination of the three, arm, leg, and motor, is superior to any one of them by themselves but is virtually unavailable in any vehicles with the exception of some recumbent and disabled vehicles that use two or more of them in tandem. Why not all three? Because it has not been the rule up to now and we are creatures of habit and captives of the conventions that have been most popular up to now. Some of it is technological since the advent of lithium-ion batteries has now made practical the inclusion of electric-assist motors on primarily human-powered vehicles easy and economical. Mostly it is the difficulty of popularizing any severe variations on what we have been accustomed to. There is no retail marketplace that is available to sell and display and offer free test rides of these variations on the usual, so they are virtually invisible. The internet will change that somewhat but the pace needs to pick up much faster and that will require more ambitious and energetic ways to get the word out.

Two wheels have many advantages over three, most of them based upon the increased efficiency of a single-track vehicle over one with three tracks like a tricycle. These advantages disappear when the need to minimize the weight of the vehicle is reduced due to the addition of the electric-assist motors. Lessening rolling resistance demands high-pressure tires and the increased bumps and shakes produces by the triple-track vehicle make the single-track one vastly superior. But if you can use bigger and softer tires, which are much better at absorbing these imperfections of the roadway, that advantage is more than made up for by the increased stability and utility of a three-wheeled device. Since we have just begun to enjoy these electric-assist motor benefits, the advanced design of these three-wheelers is in the infant stage. Creative designers are just beginning to evolve the slickly-aerodynamicVelomobiles of yesterday, into the comfortable and safe, and reasonably efficient, rather than maximally-efficient conveyances of tomorrow.

Weather protection is an essential feature of any up-to-date vehicle. Rain, hot sun, wind, airborne grit and dust, cold, all discourage riding out in the open all of the time. In order to become the ordinary means of transport, a vehicle must be able to protect the rider against the worst effects of these annoying elements. Nobody expects a car or bus or train to expose the rider to a host of unhealthful and disturbing elements but bike riders assume that this is part of life and unavoidable. Putting an umbrella above a bike is to invite a gust of wind to carry you into oncoming traffic, a dreadful thought. Assuming a lower position, while providing visual signals of the presence of the rider, flags, LEDS floating above, streamers, and the like, offer great advantages through a lower center of gravity. Three wheels and an electrical-assist motor and its batteries add weight down low where it contributes the most to safety, and guard against the negative effects of the increased surface area that weather enclosure requires. We have some wonderful weather-resistant and very lightweight materials available today that allow for tight, transparent enclosures to be made that can be easily displaced when not needed, so this improvement in the usability of the vehicle can be deployed only when necessary. No industrial-scale vehicle can offer this kind of variability to the rider. Tiny battery-powered heaters embedded in clothing and body-heat itself can be quite efficient and the rush of air past the body is a form of air-conditioning that has always been there. Shade to block the sun when needed is relatively easy to provide and windscreens are easy to deploy on stable tricycles.

The bike is essentially a single-person device. There are tandems but they are rare and require good coordination between riders. We can have side-by-side or tandem-style multi-person human-powered vehicles that, because they are on a stable three-wheel platform, do not require anything special from the riders. One could even be severely disabled and it would be of no consequence. Even three or more people could ride in a single-vehicle with no problem. We have not seen this very often so we don’t consider it possible but it is not really a problem, just very unusual so we are unaccustomed to the possibility. The multi-person ”Sociables” of the 19th century laid the groundwork for this but have, sadly, subsequently disappeared. We can bring them back and build on that tradition, expanding the common bicycle into the vehicle it was meant to be.

All of these improvements in the safety, utility, practicality, and range of features available for muscle-powered, electric-assisted vehicles, primarily futuristic tricycles, are ready to be developed today. They will change the expectations that we have for the most appropriate use of materials and resources that we need to cultivate for our own benefit and survival. It will involve no sacrifice of comfort or other pleasures, in fact, it will enhance our existence, help us to be healthier and more vigorous. It is the reason I am devoting my energies to the development of these possibilities and suggest that you do too.

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