Personal Electric Vehicles
Research Oriented Development...
Ayton Willow has a good start in the development of Personal Electric Vehicles based on European FP7 Directives for mobility and transportation in conjunction with proposals and concepts developed by the founding directors while within the Depart of Mechanical Engineering and Machine Design of the University of Genova.
The main requisite for clean, green and unobtrusive personal carriers which are designed high panoramic visibility, safer pedestrian friendly operation, and acceptability by all users with a design closer to regular cars. Access for elderly and disabled, is a main criteria for the design of the projects, with a varying requirements such as wheelchair access, or easy elderly access, and drivability.
These are new mobility concept for passengers ensuring accessibility for all in urban pedestrian environments. Ergonomics, comfort, stability, assisted driving, eco-sustainability, parking and mobility dexterity as well as vehicle/infrastructures intelligent networking are the main drivers of Personal Electric Vehicle design.
The vehicles are designed around its small dimensions, tiny footprint, on-board intelligence and zero environmental impact is suitable for moving in these areas and behaves almost as a pedestrian, disturbing other pedestrians as little as possible.
The automobile and the 20th-century city co-evolved, each adapting itself to the other. The outcome of this process has been unprecedented personal mobility, but its cost has been high measured in terms of noise, pollution, traffic jams, excessive fossil fuel consumption, road injuries and deaths, urban sprawl, and land-use patterns that do not support social interaction. Reducing personal mobility has not turned out to be an acceptable way of cutting this cost, and incremental improvements in automobile efficiency and safety have not proven to be sufficient.
The projects are based on the concept that in order to improve the quality of urban life in terms of congestion, pollution, expense etc., it is necessary to rethink this relationship. It introduces a step forward towards the changing of the fundamental relationship between the car and the city’s historical and restricted traffic areas by providing all the city’s inhabitants with better opportunities to practice ‘good mobility’ citizenship, by re-thinking urban personal transportation. Good mobile citizens continually make decisions that minimize risks of injury to themselves and others, minimize unnecessary consumption of resources, and minimize waste and pollution. They act not only in their own self-interest, but also for the common good.
In the last ten years, cities have been involved in a great effort to create green zones in downtown areas, in tourist areas and public parks ensuring citizens have an economic, social and environmentally sustainable mobility system. A particular effort has to be dedicated to the juridical substance of the right to mobility for all people, avoiding any kind of social exclusion and changes in personal habits, culture and quality of life, especially for less able (elder and disabled) users who cannot resort to the typical efficient and clean walking and cycling mobility resources powered by human muscles.
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