../ it looks that into the presevable future i will need a way to transport myself around, to a work or small jobs, to buissness for food, to see other people. each of these problems could be fixed by liveing and interacting with a smaller more local environment. but as it is, in the environmet i have been birhted into (american suberbia, weee) i have to use one of our families cars alot. i've been able to get by with a bike now and then but, weather and distance can sometimes make that difficult. so here's a cool idea i came across. though the fact that there are just so many cars on makes this a bad option. but i can dream can't i. this is a velomobile "Picture: the Sinner Mango Red Edition." - from the low tech magazine The Velomobile: High-tech Bike or Low-tech Car? The human power required to achieve a speed of 30 km/h in a velomobile is only 79 watts, compared to 271 watts on a normal bicycle. ^ highly recomend this article, goes into more detail. low tech magazine is a wonderful recorse. my extream gratitude (bow) dude shows off an old velomobile with new upgrades (oooo fancy) it is a recumbant bike in enclosed frame. this reduces air resistance. they also often come equiped with eletric moters. these two things allow for longer ranges of travel and travel durring rain and such. they have some storage area as well which is a plus. the main problem is cars. cars are dangerous, big and fast. riding a velomobile through dencer parts of town would be very risky. the top speed is around 25 mph and without an electric moter it wouldn't acselarate that fast. cars would have to pass all the time with the limited space "bike lanes" would provide. the other problem is price. these are handmade vehicles, because there is not enough demand to use assembaly lines, or out sorce to a low wage country. for a new one: $6,000 on the low end (pedal powered, no built in lights) $10,000 (electric, with horn, and turning lights) shipping one from overseas would be even more expensive. from utah -> Trisled Rotovelo Velomobile from canada? -> velomtek VT1 even this diy kit from Velocity Velos, which comes with just the shell (you'ed have to sorcce the recumbant yourself), is $2,200 with the enclosed roof. as i said before, it would be a bad idea to ride one of these on the road with trafic as it is now. i don't know. it would be pritty groovy though :). for now i'll try to make due with a bike. and it looks like i might have to buy a car. fuck. the upside of cars is that you can have road trips, take multable people places. oooo. probebly just a nostalgia thing though.