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Foldable Electric Scooter Made for Sharing

Tracy Staedter, Discovery News

"I think any assistance in getting people out of driving a single-occupant vehicle is a good thing," said Paul DeMaio, owner of MetroBike, a bike-sharing consulting company based in Washington, D.C., and a blogger for the Bike-sharing Blog.

DeMaio is working with planners in D.C., which will introduce the country's first city-wide, bike-sharing program next spring. According to DeMaio, 120 bikes will be available to commuters. And although a fee has not yet been established, the bikes will be made available for free for the first 30 minutes.

Although DeMaio acknowledges the benefits of an electric scooter over a gas-powered one or even a car, he said that introducing a scooter might be more expensive than a bicycle. Furthermore, electric bikes tend to require more maintenance than pedal bikes, and they are heavier. Cities with bike-sharing programs must hire people and trucks to physically reallocate the distribution of bikes, as they tend to pile up in some locations versus others.

"With heavier vehicles, that means more energy is needed with trucks and vans to move these vehicles around from location to location," said DeMaio.

Chin and his team are collaborating with Sanyang Motors, a scooter manufacturer in Taiwan, and Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute, and recently unveiled a prototype at the Milan Auto Show. They are also working to produce a simpler, non-folding scooter.

In the meantime, the group is speaking with transportation authorities from various cities, such as Taipei, to set up a partnership. Chin said they have not yet formalized a plan with anyone, but he knows what the ideal city would look like: congested, smoggy, with some public transportation infrastructure in place, and dense with people who both work and live in the city.

"We want to get this out there as soon as possible. If everyone is all for it ... I think we can manufacture this bike in one to two years," said Chin.

Related Links:

Tracy Staedter's blog: What the Tech?

MIT Media Lab

The Smart Cities Goup

Howstuffworks.com: Electric Cars

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