A COMMUTING REVOLUTION
An enclosed, air-conditioned motorbike with no risk of crashing? Coming up, writes
Motorcycles and scooters reduce city congestion, taking up much less road space. Where lanesplitting is legal the effect is more pronounced, and so car drivers who don’t want to migrate to the benefits of two-wheeled transport will still reap the reward of shorter commuting times. A 2012 study of a major 16km commuting route between Leuven and Brussels in Belgium unearthed some astonishing potential benefits of motorcycles. When traffic is flowing, the advantage conferred by bikes is minimal since they effectively take up the same amount of road space as a car, but when traffic comes to a halt and motorcycles split the lanes of stationary vehicles then the improvement to traffic flow is huge.
Computer modelling based on this research suggests that if one in 10 car drivers switched to two wheels, the average delay for car drivers is reduced by very nearly 60%. In the case of this one commuting route into Brussels that means the average time lost due to congestion drops from 14 to six minutes, but on more traffic-dense routes like the N1 between Pretoria and Johannesburg the savings would be even more dramatic.
It’s not just time that is saved, the environment gets a boost too because the envisaged small-capacity bikes (250cc or under) that most commuters would opt for emit less pollution. More importantly, as the traffic is now moving more freely the cars themselves become significantly more efficient and pump out less noxious gases because they’re not stuck in traffic jams for so long.
This is pretty much the definition of a win-win scenario, and yet the necessary migration of some car drivers to bikes has failed to materialise in any significant manner. Why is that?
The answer is pretty obvious really, and that is the perception of motorcycles as dangerous. Add the weather factor in to the mix — car drivers understandably don’t fancy getting wet on the way to work — and the allure of that time saving is simply not strong enough to tempt them into making the switch.
What’s needed is a bike that is virtually impossible to crash, and a sealed cockpit to keep you warm and dry would probably seal the deal. Both of these requirements seem stuck in the realms of science-fiction, but recent developments in motorcycle technology hint at a near future where these difficulties have been resolved.
Honda has recently filed patents for its Honda Riding Assist-e, the electric version of its remarkable selfbalancing concept. This is a bike that will stand on its own, without any forward motion, with or without the rider in place.
Servo motors control steering (the handlebar isn’t directly connected to the forks) and steering geometry. Influencing both of these variables allows the bike to remain upright without any input from the rider who now does not need to put his feet down when coming to a stop.
Current technology allows the bike’s brain to override a rider’s input to the throttle (traction control) and brakes (ABS), and with this latest development a rider’s steering input may also be moderated according to prevailing road conditions.
If that sounds like a recipe for disaster, just consider the impending arrival of autonomous cars that are able to read the road well enough to reduce a driver’s input by 100%. Bikes are not far behind in this respect, as Yamaha’s Motobot project demonstrates. This humanoid ‘bot can be placed on a standard motorcycle and sent off to circulate a racetrack at a pace that would leave many keen track-day riders eating its dust.
Though Honda and Yamaha are still in the early stages of these projects it doesn’t take the intuition of an Asimov to see the potential benefits. A fully enclosed motorcycle, such as the remarkable Mono Tracer manufactured in Switzerland, is compromised by the need for out-rigger secondary wheels that spring into action as the vehicle comes to a halt. These keep the bike upright but also significantly increase its width, which in turn negates its lane-splitting ability.
Imagine a Mono Tracer that incorporates Honda’s Riding Assist technology and you have a fully enclosed motorcycle complete with air-conditioning, protection from the weather and, a little bit further into the future, nearly zero risk of crashing.
It’s at this point that the necessary migration of commuters from four wheels to two will finally gather momentum, in the process reducing congestion and pollution for all.
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