Transport – Aug 26

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Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage

German Autobahn goes electric
Stefan Nicola, UPI
Germany on Wednesday unveiled a national strategy to make the country a world leader in sustainable mobility and have 1 million electric cars cruise its Autobahn highways by 2020.

“In 2030, this could be over 5 million. By 2050, traffic in towns and cities could be predominantly without fossil fuels,” the National Electric Mobility Plan reads.

It includes $712 million for sustainable mobility research and development, including programs to develop the charging station infrastructure and boost battery technology, an area of expertise that has long belonged to Asia.

“It is our goal to make Germany into the market leader for electric mobility,” Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said after the Cabinet approved the plan…
(19 August 2009)

A Quiet Revolution in Bicycles: Recapturing a Role as Utilitarian People-Movers
Dr. Morgan Giddings, chrismartenson.comvia Culture Change
Bicycles were invented over 200 years ago and were used for many years as significant and efficient means of human transport. But over the past 40 years, bicycles lost their status in the US as human transportation vehicles, due to inexpensive oil and far-flung suburban development. Since both of those factors favored automobile usage, the bicycle industry responded by refocusing their marketing strategy to promote bikes as recreational objects, only to be carted out on weekends and vacation time.

For many years this has been the status quo, with the typical bikes available in many bike shops catering to the weekend warrior, not the utilitarian cyclist. But in response to concerns over oil dependency and the environment, a quiet revolution started brewing in the mid-1990s that produced new bicycle designs and features, reinventing the bicycle as a significant mode of transportation. These new developments include cargo-carrying capacity for passengers and their stuff, plus compact, quiet, efficient, electric-assist motors that can extend the biker’s traveling range and encourage biking more often.

This article is intended to provide a broad overview of the recent developments that make the bicycle a practical utilitarian vehicle for daily transportation. In Part 1, I introduce the concepts of cargo bicycles and electrical bicycles and address the question, “Why do these developments help make a bicycle a great personal transportation option for those concerned about Peak Energy?” Then, in the upcoming Part 2, I will get into the nitty-gritty details of the products and designs available, addressing the questions, “What are the features, how much do they cost, and where can I buy one?”

…Putting it all together: The electric cargo bicycle

The longtail cargo bicycle and the electric assist are both pieces of a puzzle. That puzzle is how to make a bicycle into a practical people-and-stuff mover for everyday use for short trips, in place of a car. The cargo bicycle on its own is a great concept, but if you live in a hilly place (like I do), it can be a bit difficult to haul a hundred pounds of kids or dog food up and down those hills on a regular occasion. After we got our new Madsen cargo bike, which can haul up to four kids at once (covered in more detail in Part II), I was excited to own a whole-family transportation bike. But the ride from my home starts with a big hill. And if I was feeling less than 100%, I was just not motivated to pedal that bike full of kids up that hill. The end result was that, in the first 2 months that we had the bike, I used it about once every week or two for a weekend outing to the park or farmer’s market, and that was all I could handle. The point was really driven home to me on Easter weekend when I wanted to bike the family over to an Easter egg hunt, which was in a hilly part of town about 8-9 miles away. After getting everyone together, I realized that I didn’t even know exactly where the hunt was located, and since it was in the hilly part of town, I might get lost and wander around for a while looking for the place. The thought of hauling a bike full of kids over steep hills when lost was too much for me, so we took the car. It turns out we did have troubles finding the place, so my concerns were founded.

Then we installed an electric assist kit by eZee. What a difference! Suddenly it became fun to load up the bike with kids and go out for a ride. I wouldn’t have worried about getting lost, because hauling the kids up the hills became easy to do. This particular electric motor kit is activated by a throttle control that is on the handlebar, similar to a motorcycle throttle. I can pedal the bike, I can use electric power, or I can do both together. So I have complete control over when and how much power I want the electric motor to add (and even though I’m in pretty good shape, the motor can do more than I can!) We now use the bike all the time for running kids around the place. And it works great for doing errands like picking up dog food, garden mulch, and other big bulky stuff…
(10 August 2009)
From the Culture Change website:
About the Author

Dr. Morgan Giddings is a former recreational cyclist who turned into a utilitarian cyclist after learning about Peak Oil. After unsuccessfully attempting to work with local bike shops to obtain an electric cargo bicycle, she became frustrated at the difficulty involved in ordering all the bits and pieces needed and making sure that they would work together. So in the midst of a busy career as a professor and parent, she co-founded Cycle 9, a bike shop focused on putting together practical solutions, including cargo bikes and electric bikes, that help people ride their bike more and use cars less.

In Japan, bikes now use battery power
Jason Clenfield, Bloomberg via delaware onlin
Chie Igawa is part of a trend that’s transforming Japan’s roads. The 36-year-old Tokyo homemaker zips her kids around on a battery-boosted bicycle without breaking a sweat or having to worry about traffic rules.

Domestic sales of the bikes eclipsed those of scooters for the first time last year and have jumped 24 percent since January, according to the Tokyo-based Bicycle Promotion Institute. In 2008, Yamaha Motor Co. sold more of the bikes in Japan than motorcycles. Rival maker Panasonic Corp. predicts the market will triple to a million units a year.

“I started riding it a few months ago,” said Igawa, pausing on a sidewalk near the Imperial Palace, with her two boys strapped into child seats. “You couldn’t do this on a moped, it would be illegal.”

The bikes, which have a brick-size battery tucked behind the seat post, aren’t bound by traffic laws because they’re not classed as motor vehicles. That appeals not just to homemakers, but also companies such as Fuji Xerox Co., which bought a fleet of them to avoid parking tickets…
(23 August 2009)

When governments fail, the public must set the agenda
Editorial, Sydney Morning Herald
THIS year is the centenary of the first attempt to plan Sydney, and its transport – the 1909 royal commission which led eventually to the decision to build the Harbour Bridge and the City Circle rail line.

A hundred years later, no similar vision for Sydney transport exists. The optimism, pride and – most important of all – the administrative competence which that vision embodied have seemingly all fled from the contemporary ranks of NSW’s leaders.

The consequences of a lack of vision are not trivial. There is no need to detail the impoverished mess which is public transport in Sydney, or the daily inconveniences suffered by passengers obliged to use it. With every day that Sydney wallows in its conceptual chaos, the city is less and less prepared for great challenges which are rapidly approaching. Climate change. Peak oil. The epidemic of lifestyle diseases linked to urban design. All these will fall – are now falling – more heavily on this city because it lacks the vision to plan its transport and the will to act on its plan…
(22 August 2009)
Sent in by EB contributor Stuart McCarthy, who writes:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/olympics-people-mover-asked-to-do-it-again-20090821-etsc.html