Electric assist enclosed commuter "bike"?

nvanrider

Hi Everyone,

I'm new around here (so don't be too hard on me!). An engineer/inventor in Vancouver (Canada) has started a company to start producing a commuter vehicle - an enclosed reverse tricyle with electric-assist pedal drivetrain (including a reverse gear). They have named it the "Veemo". Vancouver has the worst traffic congestion in Canada/US after Los Angeles. The City has agreed to treat this machine as a bicycle under the law, thereby allowing the vehicle to use Vancouver's expanding network of bicycle lanes. Here are some short promos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOjLCi9F6EY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUrpkoX-r4Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19BeUYk9ZyQ

One of the possibilities is for it a one-way vehicle-sharing model like Car2Go where the vehicle is unlocked through an app and billed through an e-pay system when you sign up. Like Car2Go, the typical ride for the Veemo in urban areas is expected to be around 4 km (2.5 miles). Travel by Veemo is cheaper than auto and transit but still slightly more expensive than cycling.

The whole idea is to get people out of their cars, but will it attract urban drivers or cyclists? Would you (or other cycle commuters you know) switch from cycling to this type of vehicle?

cooldad

Not a fark. Seriously.

fat daddy

urg ..... that would never take off in the UK .. for one he windows would not be allowed to be tinted .... that means everyone could see you

interesting poll "win" over everyone else ..... you will be hated by everyone else.

Hated for using a car like object in the cycle lanes, seriously the sort of person that would drive that, would not give a rats arse about other people in a cycle lane, it would force itself past everything

Hated for slowing traffic on the roads .... its going to hold traffic up in free flowing areas


Perhaps in Canada you guys are more tolerant of others ... but in the UK its a whole new enemy on the roads

The Rookie

Its wider than many cycle lanes locally! Its just an electric micro car with a nod by having pedals and should be treated as such.

imatfaal

Looks like a Peel P50 or even more like what we used to call invalid carriages.

And No no no.

nvanrider

I agree ... I think it is an all-too-complicated solution to a car problem. Most cyclists consider physical fitness, wind-in-the-face and being in the outdoors a central attraction of of cycling. Whoever is taken by these things would probably not, in general be a cyclist. I would imagine the market would be very small, and the average driver would prefer to idle in traffic than be seen riding one of those things. Besides, people have a lot invested in their cars, both financially and as tokens of their own self-esteem (certainly in North America, but I imagine in most other places too). A big deconstruction of prevailing attitudes would have to occur before such a shift can occur.