Alex Steffen is American writer, blogger, futurist, editor and self proclaimed “bright green environmentalist”.
Bright green environmentalism is a wing of sustainability movement that is promoting social and technological change through development of smarter designs, technologies, infrastructures and business practices, rather than by more traditional protests and political pressure. He has written for magazines such as Business Week or Wired. He is a founder of an influential WorldChanging.com blog which is taking a big-picture approach on sustainability. What follows is a very inspirational speech that was given by Alex in Danish Architecture Center in Copenhagen and it is a very extended answer of question I asked in the title of this article. Contemplating about 20 necessary steps to move toward more sustainable civilization he make us aware that sustainability is not just windmills, organic carrots and electric cars. Enjoy the speech as much as I did.
Despite the fact that P.U.M.A. (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) looks a bit like Steve Urkel’s BMW Isetta I got to say that I really love the concept. I completely understand the rain of negative comments that appeared all over the net after General Motors and Segway announced that they teamed up for PUMA Project. Without any doubt the safety of the vehicle is definitely an issue to consider. Mainly if you realize that its speed is 3 times higher than that of original segway and that it is expected to run alongside more traditional (bigger) vehicles.
I do understand all that moaning and reasoning! But still! P.U.M.A is a great alternative to traditional vehicles for two reasons:
1.It protects the driver from exposure to weather conditions (Well not yet, but I believe soon we will get a machine looking more like the original concept and less like a dune buggy), unlike other car alternatives like Bicycle and small motorbikes.
2.Segway works! And you can moan and argue as much as you like to, but I just can’t see all that flashy urban mobility vehicles around our towns and cities as much as I do see segways.
To go around the question of security of this type of vehicles forever is frankly getting trapped in chicken and egg situation. We cannot have lighter, more practical and more ecological vehicles, becouse there is no infrasturcture and safe roads to drive them. And there is not enough infrastracture, becouse there is not enough lighweight vehicles. So what’s next?
PUMA is a nice concept adding to ever increasing spectrum of similar personal mobility solutions and unlike many others it is not just a CAD animation, but a working machine.
And talking about the security; “Do you prefere to be hit by a traditional car or by this little thingy?”
