Where design and sustainability cross paths

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The 1963 P50 Microvehicle From Great Britain

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In 1962, before green was the buzzword of the world, the Manx Peel Engineering Company out of the UK developed a “microvehicle” with 3 wheels designed for one person (and maybe a shopping bag). 53 inches long and 39 inches wide, the car weighed just under 139 pounds. Not equipped with a reverse gear (or any other “luxury features”), the little car got around 100 miles per gallon and had a top speed of about 38 miles per hour. With a sticker price of only £198 the car was very inexpensive. 20 P50’s are still alive and running under the tender care of collectors and the car is considered street legal even today in Great Britian. The car currently holds the record for the smallest-ever automobile to go into mass production. This witty video from TopGear tells it all.

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Red Caboose Motel in Strasburg Pennsylvania

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Called a “caboose” in America and a “brake van” or “guard’s van” in the UK, the iconic train car has drastically declined in its use over the years with only small railroads using them at times. The first known appearance of a railroad caboose was around 1860 and its first use in the United States followed much later. The word is known to be derived from French, with 18th century records mentioning a “cambose” or “camboose”, describing the cabin on a ship’s deck where food was prepared. Some rail yards are reusing cabooses as maintenance cars, or as “survey trains” after natural disasters to inspect rail lines for damage. Others such as the Red Caboose Motel and Restaurant, are using the cars to create motels, inns and even diners. The Red Caboose was started in 1969 when a man by the name of Don Denlinger was dared to bid on 19 cabooses being auctioned by the Pennsylvania Rail Road. Although Don placed a bid well below the scrap value of the cabooses, he won with the highest bid and found himself at the end of the day with all of the train cars and no idea what to do with them. After mulling over his winnings for some time, he developed the concept of using the decommissioned cabooses to create a motel. Now owned by Larry Demarco, “what started off as a dare has grown into one of Lancaster County’s most unusual motel, with over 40 rooms made from fully restored 25-ton cabooses.”

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Segway Shows Their Green Side

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For consumers who bought a Segway PT in 2007, Segway is offering to purchase renewable energy credits on their behalf to replace the electricity used in one year when charging the vehicle. For very frequent users they estimate the usage to be around 200 kilowatt hours (kWh). The credits are advertised to be supporting renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and geothermal power.

“As a leader in two-wheeled electric mobility, it’s always been Segway’s vision to produce environmentally friendly short-distance transportation alternatives. Today, more and more people are using the Segway PT as an eco-friendly alternative for many of the short journeys that are typically made by car. In fact, The EPA estimates that Americans take 900 million car journeys every day, but did you know that half of these trips are less than five miles long and are by solo drivers?”

We could not find any immediate information about recycled content used to make the product or buyback programs for recycling. There was also no information available about the batteries or PVC content used for wire coating material or other parts in the device. All this aside though, politically, getting the device to the public has been nothing short of a challenge for Dean Kamen. In the UK, Segways have been banned on both the streets and sidewalks. The British Department of Transport has invoked the Highway Act of 1835, keeping this efficient and clean mode of transport off of the streets. It’s now limited for use only on private property in Great Britain.