Abstract des Autors

Before human-powered vehicles (HPVs) are adopted for everyday commuting, shopping, and recreation, they need to become safer and more convenient to use. Even these design developments will not suffice without improvement in highways and the economics of transportation. The transportation patterns we have in most Western countries have developed largely because of large subsidies. Fully justifiable in most cases at the time of their introduction, these subsidies are anachronistic in today's changed circumstances. In general they have led to congestion, pollution, and environmental degradation. If there is a positive side to these problems, it is that people and politicians now are contemplating radical measures that only a short while ago were unthinkable. By removing even the subsidies for automobiles, a substantial portion of the population might freely choose HPV's for commuting. For this change to occur there should be a concomitant change in the design of HPV's. Verf.-Referat