My Dream Car is a Tricycle

For the record, I’m a grown woman. It’s just that ever since I first heard about velomobiles, I’ve been more than a little obsessed. What’s a velomobile? It’s basically an enclosed tricycle. Think of the Flintstones’ car but with three wheels. Or just look at the pictures below.

It seemed like the perfect mode of transportation. It’s weather proof, it's human-powered, and some of them even come with electrical assists. I was sold.

Then I realised just how much money they cost. There are cheaper used cars out there and if you added in shipping costs it just didn’t seem possible. I pined from a distance but I didn’t get my hopes up. Then I found the ELF.

The ELF is a velomobile created by Organic Transit. It's priced in a similar range to the others but the extra features (like the solar panel and enclosed cargo compartment) impressed me. They put a lot of time and research into making a great velomobile and it’s cute too. I wanted this thing so bad. But it didn’t come with doors as a standard feature and the site almost made it seem like I should be grateful for the additional 'joy and freedom'. How joyous or free would I feel if it rained diagonally? And if doorlessness gives the ELF an aerodynamic advantage, wouldn’t the doors that I’d definitely purchase just end up destabilising it to some extent? That was really my only concern (other than being broke I guess). Then I found the mö.

This thing hasn’t even been released yet but I’ve been stalking the Evovelo website like a junkie waiting for them to say it’s available. It has really similar features to the ELF but doors come standard and the designs are OPEN SOURCE! I know I’m not handy but for this project, I’d learn. I’d get help too, but I’d definitely learn. It’s the vehicle that I was meant to have.

Velomobiles are already pretty commonplace in some parts of Europe but I want more people in my hemisphere to learn to love velomobiles too. I don’t want to be the center of attention when people see me peddling from place to place in an almost-car. I want it to be the most normal thing in the world but if I have to, I’ll start the trend. It burns calories and eats sunlight, who could say no to that?

Just because I've picked a favourite doesn't mean there aren't a lot of other great human-powered vehicles to try. And, for all I know, someone is right this moment developing something even more amazing. Like an amphibious, jet powered, velomobile hybrid thingy. Yeah...

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Thanks for reading! If you liked my post, please upvote, resteem, follow or comment. If you really, really liked it, you can check out some of my other posts:

Writing/Poetry:
https://steemit.com/poetry/@elementm/original-poem-one-day-i-ll-learn-to-name-these
https://steemit.com/music/@elementm/snarky-puppy-lalah-hathaway-and-the-desiderata
https://steemit.com/poetry/@elementm/words-mia-original-poetry
https://steemit.com/artchallenge/@elementm/art-challenge-9-the-sunken-city-of-knowledge

Art:
https://steemit.com/colorchallenge/@elementm/color-challenge-sunday-purple
https://steemit.com/colorchallenge/@elementm/colorchallenge-monday-red-but-isn-t-it-tuesday

Music:
https://steemit.com/openmic/@elementm/open-mic-week-33-the-sign-by-ace-of-base

Steem on!

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Images sourced from:
photo credit: Damien Pollet Velomobile Le Mans (Cycles JV Fenioux) via photopin (license)
photo credit: albularider Leiba_orignal_top via photopin (license)
https://pixabay.com
http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/113208-shut-up-and-take-my-money
https://organictransit.com
http://www.evovelo.com