Quadricycles are gaining popularity as city friendly transportation option.
Hi Gavin; I love reading your motoring articles. Sometime back I read about a quadricycle car made in India that has been used as a taxi in countries such as South Africa due to its low purchase cost and fuel economy. Knowing Kenyans, I have often wondered why it did not catch on here. Do our laws prohibit the use of quadricycles as taxis? Alex
Quadricycles – essentially two bicycles placed side-by side, joined together by a crossbar frame and propelled by rider/driver pedal power - were first developed in the 1850s (sic), and exactly that frame format was used for the first “motorised” cars. They have been around ever since, both in that original form and in all sorts of evolved ways. Think pedicabs, light goods and personnel transports around industrial estates, motorcycle side-cars, and on to things like tuk-tuks, sky gos and quad bikes...
Although Daimler and Benz are credited with developing the first viable petrol engine, several other inventors and engineers were working on the same case, and development of the wheels and frame format on which to mount a “power unit”(electric or internal combustion) was led by a bicycle company called...Peugeot.
Their quadricycles were much more stable and comfortable than bicycles of that era, and as they could carry two or more people and/or be fitted with a relatively spacious loadbed, they became a popular substitute for the light handcart (heavier cargo needed either a horse-drawn cart or a steam traction engine).
Their drawback as pedal-powered machines was that they weighed much more than a bicycle (a loaded six-seater pedicab weighed at least half-a-ton) so had to have several very low gears (also first developed by the French) to make them more manageable. The weight and gearing issue also severely restricted their top speed.
In personal transport terms, quadricycles were an alternative to the so-called “Surrey” – a horse-drawn and open-topped light carriage with a bench for two or three people and sometimes a decorative cloth canopy to fend against sun and rain (hence the song “A Surrey with a fringe on top”). Today there are several manufacturers of more sophisticated quadricycles, with hybrid electric motors (like mopeds), and names like Granny Bike, Atomic Zombie, Lightfoot and Momentum.
I’m not aware of any law prohibiting the use of quadricycles as commercial taxis, but would fear for the impact on our already distressed traffic flows if they became a trend. The unlikelihood of that can be guesstimated by the current consumer choice between pedal bikes and boda-bodas. Both are readily available. One outsells the other by about 100 to 1.
While policy makers might usefully spare some peripheral vision to monitor these patterns and their consequences (boda bodas with sidecars, anybody?) what surely warrants legal restriction sooner rather than later is the use of makokoteni and donkey carts on major highways.
And, perhaps top of any action list, the overall issue of “mixed” traffic. The world’s safest and most efficient traffic systems simply do not allow it.
