Electric Velomobiles: as Fast and Comfortable as Automobiles, but 80 times more Efficient
solar.lowtechmagazine.com
About a quarter of the existent wind turbines would suffice to power as many electric velomobiles as there are people.
    • ertai@programming.devOP
      3·
      6 days ago

      Well, unsafe if there are cars all around you. But if we replaced a lot of cars with these vehicles which typically go around 40 to 70 km/h cruise speed, I think it would become way safer than cars.

    • Zarcher@lemmy.world
      2·
      6 days ago

      Just like regular bikes, it depends on how the bike and car lanes are layed out. If you keep them seperate the bike is unlikely to be hit.

      • umbrella@lemmy.ml
        1·
        5 days ago

        separation of bikes and cars are rare in my city/country, and traffic tends to be very chaotic.

        the main reason i say these look unsafe is that they look way less maneuverable for this situation. the nimbleness my bike has helped me avoid pretty gnarly accidents a couple of times before.

  • PowerCrazy@lemmy.mlEnglish
    161·
    7 days ago

    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.

    • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
      5·
      7 days ago

      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).

    • Dearth@lemmy.world
      2·
      7 days ago

      It’ll take years to build that high density housing. And several generations to convince everyone to move into it. In the mean time, it’d be good to use velo mobiles for transportation from suburb to suburb.

    • tetris11@lemmy.ml
      5·
      7 days ago

      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.

    • Glifted@lemmy.world
      4·
      7 days ago

      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

  • kamenLady.@lemmy.world
    14·
    8 days ago

    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?

    • Passwort@lemmy.world
      141·
      8 days ago

      Because both Cars i own were cheaper than buying one of those, atleast where iam. I quite literally can’t afford one.

  • frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml
    13·
    7 days ago

    I feel there’s probably some reasons they haven’t become popular.

    • Don’t turn as nimbly as a bike

    • Can’t put them on your shoulder and carry them indoors, onto a train, etc. like as a bike

    • Don’t climb hills as well as a bike (source)

    • 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.

    • ertai@programming.devOP
      3·
      7 days ago

      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.

    • Dearth@lemmy.world
      3·
      7 days ago

      Kinda. There’s a subreddit with people making fiberglass shells to strap to their off- the- shelf recumbent bikes. Converting a recumbent into an ebike is well documented online.

      Adaik there isnt a 1 stop comprehensive plan to build a velomobile.