lisbonize.com

Finally!

We´ve got our new blog running. I am not quite sure, if it is necessary to run them both (the one on Blogger and lisbonize.com) as they cover the same subject...
I´ll think about that ´till end of February, when we did all the beta-test and design approvals..
But very sincerely, I think it does not make a lot of sense, to keep running two own blogs with the same subject.

I will link in to other bike-communities to make interchange more visible...

We´ll see.. ;-)

How everything begun...

Picture copyright: Bernd Otten

OK, this post should have been written in the beginning, but creativity not always appears on demand... ;-)

In August 2008 I visited Amsterdam and was impressed by the perfect integration of bicycles and other alternative vehicles in the city structure. Comparing that with the conditions in Portuguese cities (and some others for ex. in Spain) there is missing a decade of development in nearly everything:

Road conditions, bicycle lanes, legislation, car domination and so on...

But on top of all this comes the new and already practised Community-legislation concerning CO2-output and noise pollution.

This will cause an immediate reaction of the city-majors and result in rigorous closing and banning of individual (car-) traffic from the city-centers.

So all this lead to my "URBAN MOBILITY"-Project, that I started in Autumn 2008.

My target, is to collect the already existing knowledge of alternative traffic solutions and make it suitable and feasible for the special Portuguese conditions. To offer traffic solutions to the cities, to develop e-powered vehicles and support their distribution to final customers and for. ex. enterprises and their employees.

For sure, we don’t do this as "Holy Samaritans" but before making money with that, we have to do a lot of basic work. For. ex. to bring together the knowledge of traffic-developers, bicycle-producers and alternative energy fabricators!

This platform on Blogger could be part of a movement that is about to start on the beautiful edge of Europe:

Portugal

Who wants to be part of it, join us!

First Steps so far:

December 08:
E-MOBILITY-SYSTEMS.COM, Lda. was set up as a company, to bring together all options of mobility solutions for bigger cities in Portugal.

January 09:
We started with an E-bike project in Porto to show (and commercialize) already available alternative vehicles.

This includes the use of fold-able electric bicycles and the introduction of a lightweight e-powered cargo bike.

During November 08 till January 09:
We already gathered some experience with the cargo bike of a famous Dutch bike-brand, which you could trace below:

First ride in Porto

Today I did my first ride with our new cargo bike in Porto. My son (3 years) and a friend loved it! BUT: The other people - seeing us driving along -were really impressed. They stopped - even in the middle of the street - looking, screaming and pointing with their fingers on us.

That is no joke! This bike must probably be the first one of its kind driving in Portugal. The reactions are totally positive, friendly and euphoric. The acceptance of this type of bicycle seems to be 100%. People see it and understand! Two children in a protected box, sitting in front of the driver, a nice design and a practical appearance. That goes immediately through the mind and creates a smile!

The bike itself is very nice, BUT: As well very heavy.. ;-/

It was necessary to change some parts, to give me a chance to climb up the hills with less effort (and not looking like Jan Ullrich during his 1998-disaster at Col de Galibier...;-)

So I changed the sprocket from 18 to 22 teeth and eleminated the heavy weight baggage-"system". A different handle-bar and riser made the seatposition to a more effective one. And at not at least a Brooks-Professional saddle and a sporty mud-guard made it lighter in an optical aspect...

  

 

 

And have a look (and an ear) to this horn:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQjH4tNUZ_g

Introduction

Hi @ all!

I just started on YouTube to show some of my movies, taken during the first steps of setting up my new project "Urban Mobility" for Portugal.
Getting soon a lot of feedback for the short time that these clips were online, I decided to set up this blog for documentation of the new activities.
I ´ll collect all information of my activities and the support from friends and other users on this site to keep it running and the readers informed.