Bicycle Design Winner
Bicycle Design blog held a contest and a bent won.
Ridiculous! was my initial response and I asked James (publisher of the Bicycle Design blog) to explain
Only about only 13 million Americans ride bikes on a regular basis while about 160 million never ride at all. So what can the bike industry do to try and close that gap? Obviously infrastructure and advocacy issues are the biggest obstacles, but what role can the design of bicycles themselves play? The idea behind the competition was to come up with some creative concepts that might interest some of those “potential cyclists” who do not currently ride at all.
I had some talented people on the jury, so the process was a lot of fun. The designer of the winning concept, Torkel Dohmers says that he “made an emphasis on automotive qualities in the design, to attract non-previous cyclists used to cars and motorcycles.”
Here’s what our twitter peeps had to say when I noticed the design earlier this week
- tnagpalx – you guys picked my least favorite by far. it would be better as a trike
- alisonatintuit – I like it! Does it have a roof in case it rains? also – would it be easy to ride up hill on?
- zackperry that reminds me of those e-bike goobs.
- tnagpalx cargo + windshield wipers for the canopy = bike pedaled mini pickup!
Treehugger also posted on the winner.
Readers? Is this concept for goobs? Your grandma or consumers who want a pedicar? You’d like to pre-order one today or hope for another design contest soon?