Comments on: It Takes a Village to…Build a Car? http://thecityfix.com/it-takes-a-village-tobuild-a-car/ Sustainable Urban Mobility Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:15:25 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5.2 hourly 1 By: TheCityFix.com: Exploring Sustainable Solutions to the Problems of Urban Mobility » Blog Archive » What Does it Mean to Be Smart? CityWiki Wants Your Input http://thecityfix.com/it-takes-a-village-tobuild-a-car/comment-page-1/#comment-2160 TheCityFix.com: Exploring Sustainable Solutions to the Problems of Urban Mobility » Blog Archive » What Does it Mean to Be Smart? CityWiki Wants Your Input Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:56:05 +0000 http://thecityfix.com/?p=1350#comment-2160 [...] my post about Riversimple, a UK-based car company that is licensing its energy-efficient automobile designs to a [...] [...] my post about Riversimple, a UK-based car company that is licensing its energy-efficient automobile designs to a [...]

]]> By: Chris Bradshaw http://thecityfix.com/it-takes-a-village-tobuild-a-car/comment-page-1/#comment-1267 Chris Bradshaw Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:19:10 +0000 http://thecityfix.com/?p=1350#comment-1267 This is pretty silly. Cities might need hydrogen power (for pollution control), but they don't need cars, especially 2-pass. ones, that really take pretty much as much parking and driving space as 5-pass. ones. The hydrogen is not yet proven, so leave that thorny & expensive matter to the big firms and national-gov. subsidies. Rather, a locally produced car should focus on the market for local travel, which, since it can be done at lower speeds, lowers significantly the design (i.e., crash, braking, acceleration) requirements. But they should be either intra-neighbourhood cargo sleds (low speed, like in warehouses, but with some hill-climbing abilities) or inter-neighbourhood vehicles for shared rides. Both vehicle should be community-owned, not individually owned (privately owned vehicles are used only 5% of their lives, cf. Shoup, D, 2005; Sperling/Gordon 2009). As to 'inter-city' travel, that should be done in common carriers, which are big enough to protect the passengers in collision with a transport truck. No need to take your car to other cities, if the destination has good transit and a range of shared vehicle for loan. Chris Bradshaw Ottawa This is pretty silly. Cities might need hydrogen power (for pollution control), but they don’t need cars, especially 2-pass. ones, that really take pretty much as much parking and driving space as 5-pass. ones.

The hydrogen is not yet proven, so leave that thorny & expensive matter to the big firms and national-gov. subsidies.

Rather, a locally produced car should focus on the market for local travel, which, since it can be done at lower speeds, lowers significantly the design (i.e., crash, braking, acceleration) requirements. But they should be either intra-neighbourhood cargo sleds (low speed, like in warehouses, but with some hill-climbing abilities) or inter-neighbourhood vehicles for shared rides. Both vehicle should be community-owned, not individually owned (privately owned vehicles are used only 5% of their lives, cf. Shoup, D, 2005; Sperling/Gordon 2009).

As to ‘inter-city’ travel, that should be done in common carriers, which are big enough to protect the passengers in collision with a transport truck. No need to take your car to other cities, if the destination has good transit and a range of shared vehicle for loan.

Chris Bradshaw
Ottawa

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