E-Bike & E-Scooter Mobility For Parents & Children – CleanTechnica

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Look at what I saw on the bike trail a few days ago:

Traditionally, scooters were a kids’ toy and e-bikes were for adult transportation and recreation. However, with the advent of powerful batteries and electric motors there has been a revolution in what is possible for both recreation and transportation. In the photo above, we see innovation in how a parent can go for a ride, or do an errand to the grocery store, with two kids. I see this as a person with a need and coming up with an innovative solution. How do I get my kids out on a bike on a nice day and give them some riding practice at the same time? And what do I do if the kid gets tired? As a bonus, this is a green solution.

In 1974 when I started working for NASA on the east coast near Washington DC, we bought a house 45 miles to the east near Annapolis, close to the Chesapeake Bay. At first, we only had one car and my wife was stuck with two little girls in the stinking hot summer with no air conditioning. She loves to tell how she put the younger one behind her on her bike in a kid seat and the older one had to ride her own little bike with her to the neighborhood swimming pool. No one had thought of a car seat in front of the rider. What a perfect solution, especially for a very young child. The child is right there in front of you where you can pay attention to his or her needs.

Add a trailer like the one below and you could be taking 5 kids on a ride, taking them on an errand to the grocery store, or doing drop off and pickup of some of the kids at school.

Combinations like this can save SUV and minivan trips. These are user innovations and not products a bike shop is trying to sell. Also, Donald Trump has no impact on this.

I also saw two girls like you see in the top image on different types of e-scooters that look like toys. However, today these can be quite powerful means of transportation for a few blocks or a mile — perfect to get to school and back.

The pink scooter is a knockoff on the Vespa scooters that I first saw as a kid in Germany in 1955. You don’t think of children as part of e-mobility, but these are not just toys. When I pick up my grandson at Grove Crest Elementary School in Pleasant Grove, Utah (see below), I saw several kids running to the bike rack to pick up their e-scooters and e-bikes and heading off home. They are saving a trip in the family, SUV or minivan — probably gas-powered.

School is out at Grove Crest Elementary School. Kids jump on 3 e-scooters and 2 e-bikes while a mom shows up on an e-bike with her youngest to pick up her oldest. See the mayhem below.

Below you can see another way to get three kids on a bike:

The young girl below says, if adults can ride two on an e-bike, I can too.

And we know by now, scooters are not just for kids, as we see rental e-scooters like the one below left all over cities. See also a young boy below on a powerful e-motorcycle.

I remember seeing Segway mobility devices often at trade shows 40 years ago when I when I was doing public outreach for NASA (see below). With the Segway, you had to balance fore and aft, but you had the handle to help with balance. I test rode one. Just about anyone can ride a Segway, and you often see police and mall cops riding them.

Below you see the modern evolution of the Segway, the One-Wheel. It has an additional degree of freedom and no handle. This requires better balance, but I see young people riding them all over Utah County. Add a wagon to the equation and now you have transportation for your kids.

When Bikes Won’t Do It

When bikes won’t do it, we go to one of the two Tesla Model 3s in our family household. The white 2019 dual motor Model 3 has been to both east and west coasts and has done the 1522 miles from Utah to Northern Wisconsin and back 6 times. It has a receiver which takes a Saris tray type bike carrier. The bike carrier easily transports two big e-bikes. It is 6 years old and has 165,739 miles on it. The blue one is a dual motor 2018, a year older, but has been in the family only for few months.

Referral Program

Tesla has reactivated its referral program. If you find any of my articles helpful to you, please use my referral link when buying a new Tesla: https://ts.la/arthur73734 (Be sure to use it when you make your order). If you are buying a new Tesla and use my link, you’ll receive $1000 off your purchase price for Model S and X, you will get $500 off for Model 3 and Y). You will also get 3 months of Full Self-Driving. It is technically FSD Supervised and it will drive you automatically to any address you enter into the Navigation. You will be getting the new Hardware 4 computer and upgraded cameras. This will enable running FSD V14. I’m getting multiple reports from family with newer Teslas that it’s amazing.