Zero Carbon Caravan

By Chris Keene

In May I attended the convention of the European Cyclists’ Federation  (ECF)www.ecf.com in Brussels, a truly inspiring event that left me with the conviction that cycling really does provide most of the answers to the problems of mobility in a carbon constrained world.

There were some amazing cycles there, and some amazing cyclists, like Xavier van der Stappen who pedalled his velomobile all the way from Dakkar in west Africa to Paris www.parisdakarnooil.org. Velomobiles <www.velomobiling.com> could become the personal transport vehicles of the future, the streamlined design and reclining position making pedalling much easier – so easy that the world record speed is over 100kph!  And some of them, Xavier’s included, have electrical assistance, making getting up the hills even easier.

Add to this the optional roof to keep off the rain and you have answers to two of the main reasons for not cycling.  As for the third reason, fear of traffic, velomobiles can overcome that too.  When I was over there I visited Johan Goossens, a wind turbine engineer who is helping to organise the zero carbon caravan in Belgium. He also has a velomobile, and it was so heartening to see him as he cycled off to work, going as fast as the traffic, and cycling along with it, so different from my own experience of cycling in Britain on my mountain bike, constantly being forced into the gutter by motorists.  Johann’s velomobile was also a bright yellow, so even the doziest of motorists should notice him!

There were many innovations at the ECF conventions, in bikes and also accessories , such as the reelight, a flashing light which is attached to the wheel near the hub (red on the back, white on the front) powered by a magnetic dynamo, and are now to be distributed by Raleigh in Britain.

There were many electric bicycles on display, as well as a lot of folding bikes, which integrate easily into our current transport system and can help us make the transition.

There were also a number of excellent ideas for carrying loads – like the Zigo, <www.myzigo.com> which can convert from a bicycle to a child carrier on the front of the bike (carrying two children) to a pram, and the Yubaride www.yubaride.com a heavy load carrying bicycle which could easily substitute for a car for many shopping trips.

It is innovations like these that can make the change to a zero carbon world.  Too often lack of R&D to replace fossil fuels is holding us back.  In Britain military R&D is 85 times larger than renewable energy R&D.  This will guarantee a world where we attempt to solve the problem of resource shortages by armed conflict, as we did in Iraq.  Is this the kind of world we want to see?  We should be replacing oil, not stealing it.