Cost of gasoline, worldwide- Good thing we bike

[smilingcat]

For those who just can't give up a car, there are lot of interest and push in new class of cars for urban transportation.

Cars similar to Smart Car. Cars with exceptional MPG. These cars are ultra small, has very small footprint, and uses very little material. This would be the first step toward weaning people off "OWN YOUR OWN CAR" and into mass transit. http://gizmodo.com/5879489/mits-fold...ally-a-reality. This car folds up to half the size for smaller parking space. It's not for highway use though.

And if you want go lighter and smaller then there is this an electric assisted velomobile http://www.aerorider.com/en/aerorider.html Too bad you can't buy one in US and trying to import one would cost you over $15,000. It does have small storage space behind the seat.

I don't see why we can't have a fully enclosed electric scooter like the aerorider and without the speed restriction of electric assisted bicycle/velomobile. Gosh it would consume less than 1kW of electricity to commute. toaster oven of electricity for an hour.

Just think, amount of space needed for a car versus amount of space needed for velomobile and bicycles. How many more people could commute on the same road!! and how much less energy and money we would be burning up.

Well I am biased since this is what I am working on when I get all the software on my computer up and running. I want to build volksfahrrad costing $2,000 or less and powered by electric motor for those too lazy to pedal.

[Koronin]

Interesting, but they look like they aren't very safe and have no storage, cargo room at all. About all they'd be useful for is commuting. It doesn't even look like you could make stops on your way home from work to pick up something you may have forgotten on a shopping trip, which they'd also be useless for.