Mechanized vehicles are needed in developing countries, because even though mass transit may be the most important means of transportation, mass transit cannot reach everywhere. The automobile is not affordable--the average price of an automobile is 30 times and its annual operating cost is 4 times the annual average wage of the workers in shanghai, china. A new vehicle should be developed. Using socioeconomic data from san francisco and shanghai, a new vehicle was planned with the following attributes: a top speed of 22 mph would provide a similar capability for going to work, shopping, and visiting friends as the automobile does in san francisco; a two-passenger vehicle with an optional two-seat compartment would satisfy most trip purposes; vehicle dimensions of 3.6 Ft long, 3.0 Ft wide, and 4.7 Ft high would minimize investment and be technologically feasible to build. A price of $874 would be affordable to the general public. To produce such a vehicle at such a price is possible. The new vehicle, being small, cheap, requiring little space to park, can be specialized in neighborhood access and connection to mass transit. It enablesmass transit to be specialized in line-haul services--concentrated on major routes with fewer stops. As a result, mass transit serviceswould be more frequent and faster. A spoke and hub system could be developed. The spokes represent extensive local roads for the vehicle. The hubs are mass transit stations with frequent and fast buses or trains running through them. The vehicle together with mass transit would form an efficient transportation system. This paper appears in transportatin research record no. 1266, Urban public transportation research 1990 .
Abstract