3 ms·

It's a good point that design and manufacturing quality are an important component here. I know the e-scooters used by Lime and Bird have seen a pretty quick i

It's a good point that design and manufacturing quality are an important component here. I know the e-scooters used by Lime and Bird have seen a pretty quick iteration, and the models they have on the streets now are a lot better than the ones they had when they launched in my city just a few months ago. In terms of in-between vehicles, I haven't seen too much yet. Our current street designs (at least in most of the US) make it really hard to operate a vehicle that is too small/slow to share the big & high speed lanes and intersections, but too large to move onto sidewalks or pedestrian spaces when you need to fill the gaps between safer/slower infrastructure. You could look at what they drive around the retirement communities, seems to be a lot of designs that use a golf cart as a starting point.

ObsoleteNerd 8y ago
Yeah I'd absolutely love to use a golf cart or similar, but I need something street registerable (I live in an inner city high-rise in Australia). Our local councils get these awesome little electric golf-cart things to roam around servicing things, but they're not legal for us to own, which is a real shame. Something the size of a golf cart, so it can be tucked away in a corner somewhere, or parked sideways with tail to curb and be no longer than the standard width of a parking spot, would be absolutely incredible. It would only need ~20-30km range, seat 2, and have a small area for storage, and I truly think it would be pretty popular for inner city dwellers. Most people just keep a cheap car tucked away in a back street nearby, or use Vespa-style scooters.
- bchanudet 8y ago
  It seems it's not (yet?) available in Australia, but Renault produces the Twizy[0] car that would fit most of your requirements. [0] https://www.renault.co.uk/vehicles/new-vehicles/twizy.html https://www.renault.co.uk/vehicles/new-vehicles/twizy.html
  - ObsoleteNerd 8y ago
    That's perfect! No way they'd ever allow those on our roads though, but in an ideal world I'd buy one tomorrow.
- bigiain 8y ago
  For the milk/bread/postoffice run, I have my "cheater bike": https://www.dropbox.com/s/nu2q0srtj62w3gl/cheater-bike.JPG?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/nu2q0srtj62w3gl/cheater-bike.JPG?d... It's a ~$50 Gumtree special 2nd hand steel-framed mountain bike, with ~$150 worth of AliExpress Chinese electric bike conversion parts, and a ~$60 battery (You'd need another ~$50 for a charger - I use one of my quadcopter lipo chargers. That battery was originally a big quad one too, so my total outlay was only ~$200.) It gets ~25km on a charge with no pedalling at all (I use it for my ~16km round trip commute and it rarely uses more than 50% of it's capacity, even when I consciously avoid pedalling...) It's _technically_ illegal - it'll put out ~450W going uphill when fresh off the charger, and it's configured with a twist throttle like a motorcycle. To be street legal it'd need to be limited to 200W with the throttle, or 250W as a "pedalo" (where the pedals need to be turning to activate the motor). I've left the controller settings to top it out at 25kmh though (it'll do over 40 if I remove the software limit), so it's not tempting me into going so fast it'll attract attention from the cops... So long as my legs are moving enough when they see me I don't behave in an illegal fashion...

ObsoleteNerd 8y ago

Yeah I'd absolutely love to use a golf cart or similar, but I need something street registerable (I live in an inner city high-rise in Australia). Our local councils get these awesome little electric golf-cart things to roam around servicing things, but they're not legal for us to own, which is a real shame. Something the size of a golf cart, so it can be tucked away in a corner somewhere, or parked sideways with tail to curb and be no longer than the standard width of a parking spot, would be absolutely incredible. It would only need ~20-30km range, seat 2, and have a small area for storage, and I truly think it would be pretty popular for inner city dwellers. Most people just keep a cheap car tucked away in a back street nearby, or use Vespa-style scooters.

bchanudet 8y ago
It seems it's not (yet?) available in Australia, but Renault produces the Twizy[0] car that would fit most of your requirements. [0] https://www.renault.co.uk/vehicles/new-vehicles/twizy.html https://www.renault.co.uk/vehicles/new-vehicles/twizy.html
- ObsoleteNerd 8y ago
  That's perfect! No way they'd ever allow those on our roads though, but in an ideal world I'd buy one tomorrow.
bigiain 8y ago
For the milk/bread/postoffice run, I have my "cheater bike": https://www.dropbox.com/s/nu2q0srtj62w3gl/cheater-bike.JPG?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/nu2q0srtj62w3gl/cheater-bike.JPG?d... It's a ~$50 Gumtree special 2nd hand steel-framed mountain bike, with ~$150 worth of AliExpress Chinese electric bike conversion parts, and a ~$60 battery (You'd need another ~$50 for a charger - I use one of my quadcopter lipo chargers. That battery was originally a big quad one too, so my total outlay was only ~$200.) It gets ~25km on a charge with no pedalling at all (I use it for my ~16km round trip commute and it rarely uses more than 50% of it's capacity, even when I consciously avoid pedalling...) It's _technically_ illegal - it'll put out ~450W going uphill when fresh off the charger, and it's configured with a twist throttle like a motorcycle. To be street legal it'd need to be limited to 200W with the throttle, or 250W as a "pedalo" (where the pedals need to be turning to activate the motor). I've left the controller settings to top it out at 25kmh though (it'll do over 40 if I remove the software limit), so it's not tempting me into going so fast it'll attract attention from the cops... So long as my legs are moving enough when they see me I don't behave in an illegal fashion...