This is a Feedback of the Human Powered Vehicles association of Germany (ca. 1.000 Members):
If we have to deliver a 90% reduction in transport-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to support the EU’s aim to become the first climate neutral continent the strategy can not only aim on reducing the tail-end emission of ever bigger and heavier cars.
Efficient transport needs to reduce the total tara of the vehicles. In standard electric passenger car drive the passenger is less than 10% of the total moved mass. That ist not efficient, even if it is just driven electric.
Instead, the topic is the dead weight to payload ratio.
Regarding cars that means that the dead weight of a car is typically 1200 - 1600 kg, while its payload capacity is 400 -500 kg. The ratio is approximately 0,3. Regarding bicycles the weight of a standard bicycle is 12 - 18 kg and it can carry up to 100 kg. The ratio here is approximately 6,5.
This means the bicycle has the best and unbeatable payload to weight ratio of any means of transport (compared with ships, aircraft, cars, lorrys, railways). In using a bicycle a minimum of energy is needed for moving a person or a payload, and also a minimum of energy and materiel is needed to produce a bicycle.
The most efficient vehicle we have today is the bicycle.
Fifty percent of all car trips in the EU are less than 5 km and 30 percent even less than 3 km. This trips can be made by bicycle or electric assisted bicycle easily.
So next to alternative fuels and charging infrastructure we need focussing to a very large extent on developing the field of human powered vehicles.
That means developing safe roads for cycles, Wide enough in respect of the different speeds of cycling, but it means also to support the developing of the vehicles itself.
In the last decade we have seen an uprise of several vehicles of a new type to close the gap between cars and bicycles.
Often the evolution of road-transport is seen as linear - from horse to bicycle to motorcycles to cars.
If we want a real change in transportation aiming to provide more affordable, accessible, healthier and cleaner transport alternatives and contribute to mitigating the impact of transport on our natural environment, including by reducing air, water and noise pollution we have to admit that real evolution is not linear.
Instead of the evolinear sociotechnical frame we have to focus on evolution of transport as an matrix, with at least four essential types of individual, personal transportation:
motorcycle - car (or automobil)
I I
Bicycle - Velocar (or Velomobil)
If we need to reduce the sector’s GHG emissions by 90% by 2050 and significantly reduce air pollution and the overall environmental footprint of transport activities, the velocar or velomobil, a possibly electric assisted bicycle with a fairing, is in our oppinion the missing link to success.
Many excuses to take the car instead of the bicycle can be eliminated. You have protection against weather, accidents (and even unwanted social contacts) an can transport your stuff safely inside. If the fairing is done in a good aerodynamic way you can pedal up to 50 km/h without the help of a motor, so even distances up to 25 km are possible to commute.
We recommend the commission to focus also on developing alternative vehicles - human-electric-driven light, safe and efficient. You don’t even need a charging station to charge the batteries of such a vehicle, and to transport in average 1,2 persons you need less than 1% of the energy of an electric car.
If you want a shift towards low-emission transport modes by moving passengers and freight transport to more sustainable alternatives, improve efficiency and sustainable consumer choices for zero or low emission practices, velocars or velomobils belong to the European agenda for sustainable urban and regional mobility.