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The response I've gotten from riding cargo trikes and pedicabs as neighborhood family and work vehicles has been much the same.
At times I attract a small group of curious folks and enthusiastic affirmations. But relatively few people find a way to ride bike or trike for much of their neighborhood transportation needs.
The list of excuses is huge.
Recently my wife took a job a few blocks from home. I am embarrased to say that I now need to fit in some transport of my kids and on a tight schedule and so I've chosen to take the car (a Honda Civic Hybrid)on some days. The fact that the car is technically a Low Emission Vehicle ad gets relatively good mileage makes me feel better, but I still feel a bit odd driving.
I do find that I am less sore now than when I was riding every day, hauling 200 - 400 pounds of tools and supplies, and sometimes more. My muscles have some time to recover.
Even so, I find that the american imagination is in bondage to the corporatist narrative. We behave as though we would die without the consumerist comfort bubble. And now that has become mostly true.
The complication is that the consumerist comfort bubble requires inputs that make it a suicidal way of living.
Neighborhood vehicles and SmartCars and the like are good ideas, but we will change only when we are forced out of the current paradigm. By then it is likely to be too late -- possibly it already is.
The Eremozoic Era -- "The Age of Loneliness" as E.O. Wilson calls it -- is descending upon us as we destroy the ecosystem that supports our species. Things will be very noisy for awhile, then they will get very quiet and lonely for anyone left hanging around.
My hope is to continue the effort toward sustainable living and hope that ever more folks will do so also. Maybe it makes no difference, but maybe it does.
More bikes and scooters are popping up on our streets, and ever more people are biking to work in Minneapolis. So that's something encouraging to me.
Hi beggar,
I am further up the coast and while the main biking season will shortly be ended by rain and cold and the summer uphere did not exist it still hasn't been bad because I finally got my wife to ride a bike. This after 30 years of coaxing ...we bought a tandem!! A great device very fast with less drag and two motors. Congratulations on the cargo bike, how is it on hills? I am thinking of building a trailer for the tandum .. should attract comment for a day or two I think.
While I am as 'into bikes' as I can be, what caught my eye was your statement:
Anyhow I think it will be anything but lonely, if the comparison between the 1950's and now is indicative. I keep waiting for things like TV and such to break down so everyone will have to come out of their houses and be sociable again. I am old enough to remember playing with kids kiddycorner from my grandmothers house while their parents sat on my grandmothers porch and socialized. People actually came out of the house, in summer anyway, for the entertainment of the street... And if the only people that are finally left are a few survivors, they will be survivors because they have grouped together so personally that they will be anything but lonely. What it will be like, to borrow a movie (and song) title is, 'The Way We Were',in-- The Epipalaeolithic Era-- "The Age of Stone(groove)";)
Keep on cycling and have your patch kit handy!
Hey CR,
I ride cargo trikes and pedicabs -- three wheeled pedaled things. I ride trikes made by Organicengines and they can be seen at organicengines.com.
Just click on the SUV link to see the Sensible Utility Vehicles.
RE: the Eremozoic Era refers tro the fact that we are in an anthropogenic extinction process, and a rapid species die-off at that.
Wilson and other scientists point out that we have destroyed the thin quilt of habitat that covers the planet to the point that over half of all species will be gone by 2100, and the planet's water, soil, and atmosphere will be so changed prior to 2100 that earth will be a hostile environment for whatever is left of our species.
The idea is that we will not have a peaceful pleasant descent into a groovy stone age, but a very violent descent into extinction. Put together all of the weapons of war, the toxic technological fabric we have woven as our cocoon, and a surge of human violence, and we have the makings of a very lonely place to be within 50 or 100 years.
The Eremozoic Era seems to me to be the most likley outcome. Even so, I like the notion of an Epipalaeolithic Era better. Nature is full of fun suprizes, and this may be our best hope.
Have you considered an electric assist system? I've been doing some research trying to find a system and Crystalyte brushless hubs seem to come out on top wherever I look. I'd want to ditch the PbA batteries though, and go with NiMH or LiFePO4 (LiFePO4 should just about last forever 1000+ cycles to 80%). The "Roadrunner" is the best for power assist, the "Phoenix" would be enough to turn your trike into an EV with the 4840 controller (48V40amp = 1920Watt or ~2.5HP). I don't have any experience with these systems yet, but I know someone on TOD does, if they'd like to weigh in.
RE: electric Assist
Good question, Substrate!
Eventually,I'll probably add electric assist. My trikes are front-wheel-drive lean steer models, so an in-hub assist could work.
Meanwhile, I may look into an NEV (Neighborhood Electric Vehicle)such as the GEMCar as an alternative. The reason for going with a full NEV is that I could get a small truck design that would serve very well for my typical trips and load0hauling needs. I put on 10 to 20 miles a day in 5 mile increments.
But using my wife's already-paid-for Hybrid works OK for many things now.
If I hook up with the right folks, it would be fun to set up a local cooperative shop with various options available: sort of a shared fleet of sustainable transportation alternatives for individuals and local businesses.
I imagine a few cargo bikes and trikes, pedicabs, and a couple of small NEVs as a practical shared fleet....? Ideas?
My old van gas guzzeler is parked most of
the time, now that I have an EV. It is three
-wheeled, classed as a motorcycle, here in
Oregon. It was originally designed as a 4
door passenger car, but with the back seat
removed I can haul about 8 cubic feet of
stulff. I am not sure of the weight limit;
they specified 500 pounds, but I wonder.
It is a ZAP model Xebra ( google it) It is
rated at 40 miles per charge. It cruses at
30 mph, with a rated top speed of 40 MPH. In
Oregon, its Electric Wheels, Inc, in Salem.
It fits right in with our solar space heating
, solar water heater, and a partial capacity
solar electric system. All of these are
described in books I have written on "How To". Look
under Ralph W. Ritchie
Finally I understand the feeling of staring
at someone's axel, if that's the right word.
Small cars take more guts to drive. I cry
every time I pass a gas station- for the
customers, that is.
Ralph