Human Powered Vehicles

Current bicycles are inappropriate for people with reduced capacity, the elderly, primary carers with infants and public amenities. With these target groups in mind the studio set out to envision pedal-powered alternatives to address a future without the convenience of the car.

The Broadmeadows urban profile dares one to dream of free public transport, active transport that benefits community health and which is locally buildable, maintainable, designable, economically beneficial and achievable. The community of Broadmeadows became a locale to test free transport viability where economic capacity is limited but social and cultural capital are high, although under-valued by many of the participant citizens and external stakeholders. Within the studio, students struggled against cultural conditioning of consumption and convenience as desirable activities, balanced against the realisation that active transport embodied multiple benefits at comparatively little cost.