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Not quite a car, not quite a motorcycle: a vehicle built for one

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Re: Not quite a car, not quite a motorcycle: a vehicle built for one

#71

Post by m463 »

cptskippy wrote: post #10
melling wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of people ride motorcycles. Protection from the weather means year round use. Throw in some specialized parking for small vehicles, and you have a winning product

Except the people who ride motorcycles do it for the open air freedom. The high ride and lack of an enclosure also give them superb visibility. This literally none of the merits of a motorcycle and all the detriments, plus all the detriments of a sub compact car. It's like they distilled bad down into a concentrated form.

What I've learned from riding motorcycles is that everyone does it for different reasons.

Re: Not quite a car, not quite a motorcycle: a vehicle built for one

#72

Post by m463 »

nsl73 wrote: post #39

I’d rather have a motorcycle. Motorcycles are faster, cheaper, can carry about the same amount of cargo, and 100 miles on a charge is enough to give me range anxiety. I’d rather have a car. I often need to carry passengers, carry large or heavy things, and a new economy car is in the same ballpark price. Who is this really for? I don’t see many people buying this as their only personal transportation if it only trave…

> Who is this really for?

I agree.

The only way I could see things like this work is if there were some incentive, like 50 paid parking places turned into 250 free/cheap parking spaces for tiny vehicles. Or roads that permit only small vehicles.

I mean what if you took a 2-lane road designed for cars and split it into 4 lanes, two bike lanes and two tiny-car/golf-cart lanes?

Re: Not quite a car, not quite a motorcycle: a vehicle built for one

#74

Post by ovi256 »

izacus wrote: post #65
Talanes wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Show me a train that can show up at my grandmother's door and drop her at the doctor's.

Swiss somehow manage to use trains in massive numbers even if grandmothers need car assistance occasionally. You don't need to poison the atmosphere every day with a car on your commute just because your grandmother might need a pick her up for her doctors checkup (having a medical facility come to pick someone up is not an uncommon service either). Why do some of you think that finding a wierd edge case is enough to…

>poison the atmosphere every day with a car

So you won't mind electric cars then, which fix that problem ?

Re: Not quite a car, not quite a motorcycle: a vehicle built for one

#75

Post by gambiting »

jmchuster wrote: post #54
J0_k3r wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we have self-driving cars already, they're called trains

i think you mean taxis? To the end customer, the only difference would be cost, and if you are rich enough, or the service is subsidized enough by investor cash, or the cost of living in your area is low enough, then it all ends up roughly the same.

Yep, that's what I post every single time. Taxis are already self driving cars, so any argument for a self driving car should apply to them as well, yet people still prefer owning their own car than being "automatically" driven everywhere. It would already be cheaper for me to take a taxi to work every day than pay for my own car, yet.....I would rather pay a bit more and have a car that is mine and that I can do whatever I want with. The self driving aspect is just not appealing in the slightest.

Re: Not quite a car, not quite a motorcycle: a vehicle built for one

#76

Post by saiya-jin »

izacus wrote: post #65
Talanes wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Show me a train that can show up at my grandmother's door and drop her at the doctor's.

Swiss somehow manage to use trains in massive numbers even if grandmothers need car assistance occasionally. You don't need to poison the atmosphere every day with a car on your commute just because your grandmother might need a pick her up for her doctors checkup (having a medical facility come to pick someone up is not an uncommon service either). Why do some of you think that finding a wierd edge case is enough to…

Not really a good example, Swiss rails are supremely expensive to state and travellers too. Most countries wouldn't be able to afford such density to have good coverage. They definitely don't run very precisely in many places due to many factors, as a local I can attest to that with many late arrivals to work in the past.

These days they run almost empty at huge losses. You still need to haul 300 tonne of steel through whole country, even if there are 5 passengers.

Maybe its the best implementation of the train network for civil travel, but still needs to be heavily complemented by network of buses to all small places.

And that grandma drive to the door would still have to use a taxi every single time.

Re: Not quite a car, not quite a motorcycle: a vehicle built for one

#77

Post by gambiting »

I remember that ages ago in Poland these were extremely popular, I used to see them everywhere:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duo_(Krankenfahrzeug)

Essentially a motorcycle with a cabin built around it. And yes, technically they were meant for disabled people - but during communist times getting an actual proper car(even a Fiat 126p) was extremely difficult - this perhaps less so.

Re: Not quite a car, not quite a motorcycle: a vehicle built for one

#78

Post by KlaymenDK »

vladvasiliu wrote: post #61
ofrzeta wrote: post #33

There's also the Renault Twizy that is readily available and significantly cheaper (starting at 7000 Euro). Actually even the regular electric car by Seat (Mii) is much cheaper than the Electrameccanica.

I wonder why no one mentioned the Smart. Here in Europe they're quite popular in dense cities. One advantage is they can be parked sideways on most streets, which not only helps with finding a spot but is also easier. According to Wikipedia[0], a Smart is actually shorter and it can also be electric. This actually has quite a few shortcomings compared to a Smart: * Cannot carry a passenger * Requires a motorcycle lic…

"One advantage is they can be parked sideways on most streets"

Caveat lector. I know this to be technically illegal in some European countries, even when the entire vehicle is parked within the lines.

Re: Not quite a car, not quite a motorcycle: a vehicle built for one

#79

Post by fest »

LilBytes wrote: post #46
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Motorcycles and cars also don't tip over dangerously on curves. That alone relegates trikes to peculiarities that only some will tolerate.

Well, motorcycles don't 'tip' but low siding and high siding on roads or on a track. Either from debris or inexperience is not to be trifled with. But in +100,000km of total riding time I've had very few injuries, just scrapes and bruises because I'm always wearing boots, helmet and gloves as a minimum. I've high sided on a track twice (too fast into a corner, lost traction, immediately got traction back and flew me…

My anecdata in ~ 50,000km riding time on a motorcycle: a frontal crash I could do nothing about (oncoming car made a left turn, didn't see me).

Luckily it happened in a city and I was in full leather tracksuit. I got through with a few bruises and ruptured spleen (which thankfully healed on it's own and I now have two of them).

Re: Not quite a car, not quite a motorcycle: a vehicle built for one

#80

Post by pjc50 »

vladvasiliu wrote: post #61
ofrzeta wrote: post #33

There's also the Renault Twizy that is readily available and significantly cheaper (starting at 7000 Euro). Actually even the regular electric car by Seat (Mii) is much cheaper than the Electrameccanica.

I wonder why no one mentioned the Smart. Here in Europe they're quite popular in dense cities. One advantage is they can be parked sideways on most streets, which not only helps with finding a spot but is also easier. According to Wikipedia[0], a Smart is actually shorter and it can also be electric. This actually has quite a few shortcomings compared to a Smart: * Cannot carry a passenger * Requires a motorcycle lic…

The Smart cars have always looked as if they should be electric, but aren't.

Then there's the whole Kei car phenomenon..

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