Cargo Hauling Scooters To Offset Gas Prices?
A new scooter concept is designed around the task of hauling cargo in the most direct way possible–it’s a moped with a hole in it.
It’s been known since the device came into being that mopeds, scooters, and motorcycles are far more space- and fuel-efficient than cars and trucks. They’re also dirt cheap compared to the four-wheeled behemoths we use to get aroud, most of which are a passable year’s salary. So why are they clogging the streets of Asia but not here?
One Last, Final, Last George Carlin Tribute
The late great comedian was fond of pointing out one of the most basic obsessions of American society: we’re bound, inexorably, to our stuff. Books, electronics, Aunt Edna’s silverware, it doesn’t matter. We’re so good at buying stuff that we need larger houses than the rest of the world just so we can fit all of our stuff inside. The same logic seems to apply to most truck and SUV owners (car owners, this goes for you, too, but it’s easier to pick on SUVs), who have their mode of transport for daily driving built around the one time a year it will snow enough to use the four wheel drive, or when they have to help a friend move. It’s going to take ages to get Americans to realize that they can have specialized vehicles, largely because right now it’s too expensive to be feasible. Until then, is there any way to get the population on to a scooter, and drastically cut fuel consumption?
A Scooter With A Hole In It!
Yes, that’s right: if you’re worried about carrying around, say, a dishwasher, you no longer have to buy an SUV; you can just buy a scooter with a hole in it. Keeping balance on this strikes us as an issue, but hey, if Chinese counter-terror cops can make Segways work, then we feel confident nothing bad is going to happen on a scooter. And with that development, the possibilities really become limitless; the concept gallery even includes a model for DHL, the German shipping giant. Will it come to fruition? We don’t know, but consider the EcoTech Daily fingers to be crossed.
More Reading:
Scooting: Cargo Scooter Concept Is A Moped With A Hole (Gizmodo)
Cargo Scooter Concept By Eliott Ortiz (Photo Gallery) (Tuvie)
Enter your email address:
Comment by Nic Darling on 3 July 2008:
Does this look hard to steer to anyone else? I showed it to a friend because I thought it looked cool and their first thought was . . . “How do you turn?”
Comment by Arthur Page on 22 July 2008:
just like a motorcycle, 90% of the turn is leaning.
Comment by Uncle B on 2 June 2009:
I like trikes! Two wheels out front to steer and give stability, a flat platform, slung low, and perhaps of adjustable length, a single drive-wheel out back, large enough for good traction, wide enough for stability. Electric drive? Why not! Maybe even a Hybrid! sure.