Category Archives: Well done!

Time Square

The USA is possibly the most pro-car country since distances from A to B points are impressive and some of the more important car firms set up there. Moreover, car marketing is astonishing (similarly to every developed country in the world) and car industry has hundred of thousands of employees, hence this had some magnificent cities like Detroit in the past. Millions of cars are driven every day and thus it is huge when urban mobility is increased without taking into account car needs.

The case of Time Square (New York) is a good example. The pride it causes makes a lot of cities wanting something like it. In other words, giving more space to pedestrians and green vehicles such as bicycles is a worldwide tendency.

Just compare both images to see what happens when pedestrians can securely walk without the noise and pollution cars cause. It is like magic. Suddenly, people show up from all over and enjoy the area. If you consider the fact that Time Square is one of the top world areas with the highest stores per squared mile, you determine sales increased as a result of it. There are no two ways about it and figures confirm it. Pedestrians can walk and thus spend more time in the pedestrian area. Thus, they spend more time in going shopping, seeing stuff, comparing prices, putting on clothes, etcetera. Sellers welcome such a decision though the initial reticence.

Before

TS after

Electric bicycle

Continuing with bike adaptations to specific problems people have, suppose you live in a hilly city and you want to climb a street up. One can use a electric bicycle (or e-bike) to ease pedaling. This type of bike is even more important for those who have heart problems and/or senior citizens. But what exactly is a e-bike?

An electric bike is a bicycle with an integrated electric motor which can be used for propulsion purpose. Although there are a variety of e-bikes, all of them allow pedaling without using the electric motor. Its starting in the late of the 19th century was rather discrete, but its popularity has been growing in recent years and is used in private and public bike sharing systems, i.e. in bike tourist tours.

E-bikes are classified as:

  • With pedal-assist: the electric motor is regulated by pedaling. Hence, the effort of the biker is increased in this electric bike with pedal-assist (or pedelec). This effect is counteracted in smooth streets in which one pay extra effort to save it in hill streets. This bikes have a sensor to detect the pedaling speed, the pedaling force or both.
  • With power-on-demand: the motor is activated by a throttle in the handlebar. Sometimes this e-bikes have more power than the ones with pedal-assist. In turn, this kind of system presents three possible uses:
    • Riding with pedal power alone (only human effort)
    • Riding by only the electric motor
    • Combining both together at the same time

Tricycles can also have an electric motor.

Tricycle

Since the bicycle ancestors were created, bikes have evolved to make people life easier and funnier. Its adaptation capacity to the a priori problems most people have faced for ages has converted it into an extremely adaptable machine. Today I will talk about the tricycle.

A tricycle is a bicycle with three wheels. It has evolved in parallel with bicycles. It seems two French inventors developed a three-wheels vehicle powered by pedals and named it a tricycle back in 1789.

The third wheel is usually put in parallel to the rear wheel, although it also appears next to the front wheel in some tricycles . Why was it made up? To overcome the mobility problem some disabled people have had. Thanks to the extra wheel, one does not need to walk perfectly or have an absent vertigo. This fact makes even broader the importance of bike as a vehicle for everybody, the democratization of bikes. Moreover, the increment in stability in comparison to bicycles is favored by children and senior citizens. Furthermore, a tricycle is useful to carry weighted goods. The third point allows to better distribute the weight so that heavier merchandise can be carried. In addition, if a basket is incorporated to the bike, its power is multiplied.

On the other hand, tricycles are divided between cycle rickshaws (for passenger transport) and freight tricycles (for goods issues). Riders should pay special attention when cornering to avoid tipping the tricycle over as its lateral stability is not as good as it can look like.