Homepage lightauto.com
A Century of People Cars A history of the lightweight car and its impact on the progress in personal transport and mobility in Europe and Asia List of Chapters The Revolution in Personal Transport in Europe Origins of the Lightweight Car Early Days 1910 to 1916 Post War Progress 1918 to 1929 Consolidation 1930 to 1939 Rebuilding 1945 to 1955 Diversity 1955 to 1969 Maturity 1970 to 1979 Conformity 1980 to 1989 Sophistication 1990 to 1999
The Revolution in Personal Transport in Europe
What is the definition of personal transport? I think it is a means of transport that an individual has at their command at any time to travel were ever they wish. Many forms of transport have been used for that purpose throughout the ages. The horse with or without a carriage or other wheeled vehicle was the most commonly used of various animals to provide a means of transport. The boat in one form or another has been used for the same purpose on water. With the advent of railways their have been private trains, but usually such a conveyance was for heads of state and the fabulously rich.From the beginning of the development of powered flight most forms of aircraft have been used for personal transport by a very small percentage of the population. The entire above has limitations in one form or another, from range of operation, area of use or predominately high cost of ownership and running costs. When introduced the bicycle was a relatively low cost innovation that provided personal transport to a great number of people and still does for millions through out the world. But it still requires the use of our legs that had been used for 1 Homepage lightauto.com
walking, the universal form on personal travel for the majority of mankind up to that time. Although it enabled the legs to be used in more efcient manner it only had a limited range unless the rider was very fit.The horseless carriage, electric, steam or internal combustion engine powered, added a new dimension to personal transport when introduced at the end of the nineteenth century. Initially as expensive to own and use as the horse drawn carriage, the horseless carriage was again the preserve of the rich.The bicycle fitted with an internal combustion engine was relatively inexpensive compared to the motorcar of the period. Those early motorcycles were mechanically primitive with no gearbox and a belt drive between the engine and the rear wheel. The engines fitted To the early motorcycles were of low power.This was usually sufcient as the poor roads and crude chassis design limited performance. The motorcycle provided transport at a cost that many could aford and was the first form of powered personal transport that a great number of young men and some times young women aspired to. The motorcycle has grown in sophistication during a century of development and the lower powered machines, the mopeds and motor scooters still provide personal transport to tens of millions of people around the world.After the motorcycle had demonstrated its potential to provide low cost transport, enterprising designers produced machines that were almost as light but more stable, these were the motor tricycle and the motor quadricycle, in essence three and four wheeled motorcycles and as was the motorcycle of the period, all technically unrefined. These were developed to provide a more comfortable form of transport and the results were the try-car's and quadricar's, These machines were devoid of bodywork but were more substantial than the tricycle and the quadricycle and reflected the advances made in motorcycle design. The solo motorcycle can accommodate the rider and often a passenger as well. This was satisfactory until the passenger wanted a more comfortable means of transport or there was more than one passenger to carry. In the first half of the twentieth century the motorcyclist could choose to fit a sidecar to his motorcycle to accommodate his passengers. In Britain this was known as a motorcycle combination and it was less expensive to purchase and use than the small cars of the day and were popular with the family man of modest means up to the 1950’s. tricycle’s, quadricycle's try-car's and quadricar's had been produced for about a decade straddling the turn of the nineteenth century.The try-car and the quadricar cost about half that of the light cars of the time the Voiturette. They proved too crude to provide an acceptable means of personal transport and soon disappeared from the motoring