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″

Multi-limb-propelled

Light Wheels

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.

Contact Steven Stollman: Email | Tel. 212 431 0600

The testimony

Light Wheels

The following is testimony was given by me

at the hearing at DOT today, May 29th, regarding the new rules covering e-bikes:

The flowering, here in its most natural and needed environment, of human-powered, with modest electric assistance, and human-scale transportation, is the best remedy for the damage inflicted by 100 years of control of this vital aspect of our lives by the mining and manufacturing industries. Using tons of materials to move us from place to place within urban spaces, when tens of pounds will do just as well, makes sense only to those selling us this mistake, pound by pound, year after year.

When I asked a Swiss participant in the “Tour de Sol” electric vehicle event in 1989 why a country with only 6 million people had 90 percent of all of the solar vehicles in the world, he replied “We have no car company and we have no oil company”

Your actions today are opening the door much wider to a fully sustainable future. You are to be congratulated for that. Now please apply your new awareness to similar vehicles, like pedicabs and cargo delivery vehicles, that have the potential to replace dangerous, oversized, and polluting alternatives.

Also, please permit those using this equipment in their work to modify it, to conform to your new requirements without having to purchase brand new equipment, if the result is exactly the same. This is an unfair burden to place upon anyone when it serves no valid purpose. You can, instead, institute a regular testing procedure to ensure compliance and the Department can use the opportunity to simultaneously provide some beneficial orientation regarding traffic rules and best practices.

TO THIS I WOULD LIKE TO ADD:

The New York Bicycling Coalition deserves much credit for bringing awareness to this issue over the last four years. They are currently leading the charge in Albany in order to bring forth appropriate legislation on the State level. Any help from DOT in this regard is most helpful and appreciated of course.

We need to learn to respond to situations such as this, whether it be new technology or unforeseen environmental effects, without waiting decades to assess and act. We may not have an infinite amount of time to deal with matters of this magnitude.

I was the NY distributor for a variety of electric bike brands, including Giant, Panasonic, and FORD, without much success over the past decades and all of these machines fell far short of adequacy since they relied on heavy lead-acid batteries that made them very cumbersome. The advent of lightweight lithium-ion batteries has changed the situation radically though and it is now virtually impossible to distinguish some electric bikes from non-electric ones. Most importantly, the onus of using these machines has all but disappeared. The bike culture has finally come to embrace these vehicles and those who use them. Instead of sneers, you get intelligent questions about how they work. All over Europe and the rest of the world, electric-assist vehicles are being welcomed. We are late to the party but at least we are getting there.

I am currently designing prototypes of wheelchair-carrying pedicabs that will require pedal-activated electric-assist motors to function properly. The benefits of this technology, especially to those with mobility challenges, will be enormous.

Thank you again, on behalf of all air-breathing animals.

Contact Steven Stollman: Email | Tel. 212 431 0600

A Movement

Light Wheels

AM

is a loose confederation of like-minded individuals from around the planet, who want to use the evolution of transport design and provision, using human and solar energy, as a means to create mobility systems that are safe and efficient, and accessible to all, and as healthful, beautiful, unique, and ubiquitous as possible, as soon as possible.

How to build a human/solar-powered vehicle

Light Wheels

Find some old, discarded, broken, or unused bikes of any description.

Find a pad of paper and a pencil or pen and look in the library for helpful information.

Begin to imagine what a different kind of vehicle might look like and how it might work.

Call a friend or two so that this can begin to be a cooperative group project

Make a poster with an email describing this project and what you hope to accomplish.

Find some unused space to work or put the request for one on the information poster.

Contact local hardware, and second-hand stores, to ask them to contribute needed materials.

Offer all local businesses the opportunity to sponsor and provide resources for the group.

Collect a basic hand and power tool kit and selection of nuts and bolts, tape, epoxy, etc.

Offer other locals, with an interest in this process, the opportunity to become involved.

See if there are engineers, mechanics, artists, craftspeople, or anyone willing to pitch in.

Let the local media know what you are doing so they can publicize and help you.

Post your progress on AMovement.org so you can invite comments and help.

Follow the advances that other groups are making and continue to learn from them.

Bring local officials into the picture and encourage them to pursue your ideas seriously.

Learn the history of transportation in this country and how it has been manipulated.

Give everybody rides in your vehicle and begin re-evaluating and re-designing it.

Use the experience of the following something from idea to reality to solve other problems.

Establish the value of believing in yourself and learning to be as creative as possible.

Persuade all local educational establishments to consider beginning their own project.

Work to use the results of these efforts to bring forth actual enterprises and products.

Ride around and show off what you have done in order to inspire more similar efforts.