CAR FREE: Does this count?

[jonathan180iq]

http://www.humancar.com/
Man! I'd love to have one of these.

Also, I'd like to say that I am 50% car free. I don't own a car, but I do have a motorcycle. At least I'm sticking with the 2-wheeled revolution :)

1987 Schwinn World Sport
2006 Suzuki GZ250

[Spaceman Spiff]

How fast does that thing go? I'd hate to get in an accident with it...

[jonathan180iq]

The site said it was capable of 40+mph speeds.
Did anyone watch the video?

IF you can't find it on the site, do a google video search for humancar.

[lauren]

I also have a motorcycle. You will be looked down upon and scorned by the "car free" folks, because that's just what they do. No matter that some food I need is 30 miles away and no bus. Nope, I should spend a whole day bicycling there (more like a whole weekend) even though I'm a grad student and don't have enough time as it is.

[Juha]

You will be looked down upon and scorned by the "car free" folks, because that's just what they do.

Thanks for the generous generalization there, lauren :rolleyes:. Feel free to dig up one post where I scorned you or your chosen means of transportation. It should be easy, as that's just what "we" do.

Like I've said before, I don't for one minute imagine I'm truly car free in the sense that pretty much everything I need for living has to be transported somewhere near me. Mostly that is done by internal combustion engines of various kinds. Car free lifestyle for me means I don't have the need to own a car myself. To someone else it may mean something different.

--J

[Az B]

I only owned bicycles and motorcycles for many years... until my daughter was born. I started bicycle commuting in 1982.

I'm not car free, but I consider the motorcycle to be far superior transportation to a car. Faster, more efficient, and a lot more fun. The car gets used very infrequently. When the kid goes to college I'll likely sell the car.

Az

[saraflux]

I also have a motorcycle. You will be looked down upon and scorned by the "car free" folks, because that's just what they do. No matter that some food I need is 30 miles away and no bus. Nope, I should spend a whole day bicycling there (more like a whole weekend) even though I'm a grad student and don't have enough time as it is.


hey... not all of us are uptight elititsts.
IMHO, whatever you can (and are willing) do to simplify your life is great. in a perfectly designed world, yeah, no motorized vehicles should be necessary. if you find that place, lemme know. i bet it's right next to the place where people can discuss things without getting all holier-than-thou on one another...

[lauren]

What? Did Roody get run over? Last time I posted here I was given a lot of crap because of my motorcycle.

[jonathan180iq]

I haven't been given any crap for having a motorcycle. I mean, it's a step in the right direction. I'll eventually downsize to a cheap moped before I completely let go of the fast transportation vice.

I am a strong advocate for the environment and for efficient living. But our society, with it's huge expanses of nothingness, require most people to have a car, if they want to keep up with the hassle of daily life/work and do not live in a city. I am not saying that the hassle is necessary, but if you want to keep up with the speed of this culture, you have to make some compromises. A big SUV of which you are the only passenger is not a compromise. I think that a motorcycle is a compromise. It's one that I think is superior to other forms of transportation; the top of that list being the bicycle.

I think that if man could find a way to make a completely pollutant free, fast (30+mph) transportation device available to the average joe with no athleticism, then that mode of transportation would quickly change the face of our car-loving & polluting society. However, since that is near impossible, and people are lazy to begin with, I don't see much of a change on the horizon. Not that I will stop fighting for one, but we need to be honest with ourselves.

All of the people on this forum know what I am talking about. We all enjoy the freedom and efficiency of a bicycle. I'm sure, like me, most of the riders on this forum can reach their destinations almost as quickly on their bicycle as most people can in a car; sometimes faster. But the average person has other priorities and other facets of their lives which they place above things like SMOG, oil consumption, free transit, efficient living, responsible lifestyles, and better health. There is nothing we can do about that. It's engrained in out culture. This is why we are the fattest, richest and laziest people on the planet.

A motorcycle isn't exactly pollution-free or the healthiest thing for the earth. It is, however, very fuel efficient. (My single cylinder 250cc gets around 76mpg.) they're also economical, light on the traffic load, cheap to construct, cheap to buy and easy to maintain. If I could average 40+mph on my bicycle, while carrying my wife and groceries, I would do it; and so would the average Joe. but it's just not feasible for most people.

[cerewa]

I think that if man could find a way to make a completely pollutant free, fast (30+mph) transportation device available to the average joe with no athleticism, then that mode of transportation would quickly change the face of our car-loving & polluting society.

Small, cheap electric vehicles running off overhead wires (like seattle buses and philadelphia trolleys do) could come pretty close to this description. Especially if they used wind electricity. But you'd need to get the vehicles and the wires built at a high initial cost-- and small, efficient vehicles (say, the size of a 2passenger 4wheel ATV or a motorcycle) don't protect the occupants as well as a good 3000 pound "economy" car.

[Roody]

What? Did Roody get run over? Last time I posted here I was given a lot of crap because of my motorcycle.
I didn't give you crap because of your motorcycle. I gave you crap because of your whiny rudeness.

I also pointed out that the Union of Concerned Scientists concluded that, per passenger mile, motorcycles are worse for the environment than automobiles. You replied that passener mile data is worthless, but you never pointed out why you feel this way. I'm still wondering....

[lauren]

My ears! My ears! More of this "per passenger mile" that I already explained was COMPLETE BS.

[Roody]

My ears! My ears! More of this "per passenger mile" that I already explained was COMPLETE BS.
Sorry. If you explained it, I missed it. Motorcycles almost never carry more than one passenger. The national average of passengers per motorcycle trip is less than 1.1, IIRC. The national average for cars is 1.9 people per trip. That's almost double. Motorcycles have less effective smog controls (although I believe this is changing). They have a higher proportion of steel so the production process pollutes more. Noise pollution is obviously worse.

I'm not putting you down, and I'm not putting motorcycles down. I'm just repeating figures I read from the UCS, an organization that I very much respect.

[maximusvt]

Wow, not even one page long and this thread has been hijacked like five times.... come on people, get a room.

An interesting piece I found in their FAQ:

How is it going to work with Bike Lanes?
The FM-4 isn't going to work everywhere. That's certainly true. Fortunately, the USDOT LSV rules are creating the need for "golf cart" friendly lanes, and some forward thinking planners are providing wider "bike" lanes to enable this inevitable shift away from cars, cars and more cars.

GOLF CART friendly lanes!! that's crazy. the drivers will be shouting "Get back on the course you freakin lunatic!"

My opinion, this 'human powered car' is not going to go anywhere anytime soon. In our country the average person gets in his own car and drives alone to his destination. Buying one of these would be like buying a four person tandem- if you ride it alone you are hauling a lot of extra weight for no good reason and it will also make you look lonely.

But I can appreciate the idea behind it... maybe someday.

[MarkS]

A car that gets steered by TWO people? Crazy.

Reading through the FAQ, I can't see any advantage of this vehicle over bicycles. It doesn't appear to run faster than a bike, and apparently it really needs 3 people to get max. speed. The front page said something about regenerative braking, which would have been exciting, but it appears that the functional car doesn't actually have that feature.

[oilfreeandhappy]

Wow, not even one page long and this thread has been hijacked like five times.... come on people, get a room.

An interesting piece I found in their FAQ:

How is it going to work with Bike Lanes?
The FM-4 isn't going to work everywhere. That's certainly true. Fortunately, the USDOT LSV rules are creating the need for "golf cart" friendly lanes, and some forward thinking planners are providing wider "bike" lanes to enable this inevitable shift away from cars, cars and more cars.

GOLF CART friendly lanes!! that's crazy. the drivers will be shouting "Get back on the course you freakin lunatic!"

My opinion, this 'human powered car' is not going to go anywhere anytime soon. In our country the average person gets in his own car and drives alone to his destination. Buying one of these would be like buying a four person tandem- if you ride it alone you are hauling a lot of extra weight for no good reason and it will also make you look lonely.

But I can appreciate the idea behind it... maybe someday.

Thanks for getting this thread back On Topic. This vehicle will be great in the post Peak Oil Mad Max type world. All those roads, and nothing to drive on them. Get one now, and be prepared.:)

[jonathan180iq]

I was wondering when people were going to get back to the topic of the post.
I know that this awesome machine may not be completely feasible. But I think the fact that a good idea was actually put into production. In small resorts and neighborhoods, this thing would be awesome. I wouldn't mind taking it to work and stuff, if I lived in a relatively flat landscape and could carpool with a couple of friends to work or something. If you could find a group of like-minded individuals who wouldn't mind doing a little extra work to get somewhere.

[becnal]

Great for families too.

[DXchulo]

Reading through the FAQ, I can't see any advantage of this vehicle over bicycles. It doesn't appear to run faster than a bike, and apparently it really needs 3 people to get max. speed. The front page said something about regenerative braking, which would have been exciting, but it appears that the functional car doesn't actually have that feature.

That's what I was thinking as far as no advantage over a bike. I watched some of the videos and every time it looked like they were going pretty fast it was on a downhill. 4 people on a big machine are heavier than one person on a bike, so that's not much of a surprise.

It also looks like it's more work than a bike, which is good for exercise, but most Americans are too lazy for that. It seems better for when 4 guys want to go out and have fun, not when they need practical transportation.

At least they're trying, though. Maybe this will serve as good inspiration for something better in the future.

[bike2math]

Great for families too.

Yeah families would have need of large numbers of children again. Not to get free help for their farm but to get free engine power for their HPV :D You'd think the focus on the family types would be all over this one.