[sustran] Re: electric rickshaws

[Harshad Kamdar]

I have no practical experience on this, but an idea strikes me as to why can
we not convert Rickshaws into Solar powered battery operated units. If
electricity is available dual charging can be done. It can operate for a
limited haulage of say 25/40 Knms.

Kanu H. J. Kamdar


Prakruti an NGO based on Bombay
Rincon India Solutions Pvt. Ltd.,
Phone +91 22 401 0041
Fax +91 22 402 1590
hjk at rincon.net



  -----Original Message-----
  From: owner-sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org
[mailto:owner-sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org]On Behalf Of Heckler
  Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 08:23
  To: sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org
  Subject: [sustran] electric rickshaws


  The recent spate of postings has been "interesting" even if it did fill up
my mailbox that I now have to sweep clean. But on to a more practical
matter -- I'm resubmitting an earlier query to which I received no responses
so I am restating it in the hope of eliciting some feedback.  Most of you
are probably familiar with the pollution effects of motorized rickshaws that
one sees all over Asia. The Philippine versions use two-stroke motorcycles
burning up a low-cost mixture of gasoline and oil that sends clouds of
emissions and tons of pollutants daily. I would like to know if there are
people on the list with practical experience in converting these vehicles to
low-polluting ones. (Of course the ideal would be to replace with pedal
powered rickshaws and to encourage more walking and cycling but let's say
that's not an option at this point for various reasons.)  There is a clean
air campaign for Metro Manila funded by the ADB and some people there are
saying to replace the motorcycles with the four-stroke engined variety for
less pollution. It seems to me that even in the short-term the better option
would be to replace them with electric rickshaws. What are the issues we
should be looking at? There is no local manufacturing of e-vehicles at the
moment and the cost of these vehicles seems to be a big point against them
(based on that article from India where they''ve already commercialized
them) or is it? Is this why e-vehicles are doing poorly in India? There was
also news last year about doing converting rickshaws in Bangkok and I was
wondering what happened to that. Relatively low income people own and
operate these rickshaws and use them as their primary means of livelihood.
Is this even a viable option or would another stragety be better?

  Thanks in advance for any practical feedback.

  By the way, in response to Tongchai's query -- our laws don't cover
bicycles as vhicles specifically so it's a live and let live situation. I
now wonder if legally they are covered in the same way that pedestrian
rights are covered (as in the UK case that's been pointed out here) but I'm
no legal eagle -- for example, what happens when there are conflicts and
during accidents? This is also a question we've been occasionally stumped by
in our local advocacies.
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