Will This New Vehicle Be Good News For Cyclists?

Would you believe that I’m actually excited about a new type of vehicle making its way to the road?  Well, that is if Lit Motors achieves their main goal. Lit Motors Corporation is another one of the companies I found out about through Progressive’s Apron Project.   These guys want to transform the way we think of cars, car companies, and transportation…..and that sounds like great news to me. The Lit Motors C-1 is a two-wheeled gyroscopically balanced vehicle designed to make urban transportation “safer, faster, more efficient, and more responsible for everyone”.  I particularly like that last bit about making transportation more responsible….definitely a missing factor in today’s society. Okay, so back to their corporate goal I mentioned.  Lit’s Chief Marketing Officer, Ryan James says, “our main goal is not to pull people from bikes, transit, or motorcycles, but instead to get people out of large four-wheeled cars and into small two-wheelers”.  He goes on to say, “it’s much more efficient for both users and the system as a whole, and also makes drivers much more aware of the specific needs of two-wheelers”. Sounds pretty awesome, doesn’t it?  I like how Lit Motors thinks, and because of this I’m wishing them all the success I can.  It’s hard to say for sure how this traffic change will look, but I feel it will be a turn in the right direction. As a cyclist, I seem to be attracted to companies with a strong bicycle culture in their work environment.  Most of the Lit team commutes to work by bicycle, scooter, or moped so they are quite aware of the frustrations we have on the road.  I also think it’s cool that Progressive sees the benefits of technology like this as well.

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tepYw8Zytpo’]

The use of gyro technology is nothing new, as there have been a bunch of interesting ideas since Louis Brennan’s invention over a century ago.  There were some consumer-facing two-wheeled car concepts in the 60’s, and advanced gyro technology helped it make its way to usage in spacecraft.  Today, the advancements have reached a point to where gyro applications are even available to startups.

It’s uncertain as to when the two-wheeled gyroscopically balanced vehicle will begin taking over the roadways, but Lit plans on beginning production as the end of this year.  They are currently taking pre-orders from their website if you’d like to buy one for your favorite SUV driving friend.

I wish these guys luck, and even more so hope it’s one of the solutions to better roads for cyclists.

 

Disclosure: This post was written as part of Progressive’s Apron Project, helping tell the story of people and their initiatives making progress towards a greater good. I have been compensated as a contributor to this project, but the thoughts and opinions in this post are my own.