New Wheels For the Transportation Challenged

Leave it to the Europeans to design the perfect automobile for our loved ones who need more independence. Check out this accessable inexpensive motorized transportation!  Power chairs begone! Introducing the Kenguru!

If you think this is just another "electric mini-car" post, think again. Yes, the Kenguru is a small, electric-power auto, but that's not what makes it interesting. The visible innovation of the Kenguru is the target market: people in wheelchairs; its deeper value is what it suggests for the future of material production: "Long Tail Manufacturing."

Vehicles for people in wheelchairs aren't terribly unusual, but they're nearly always a modification of an otherwise stock car (typically a van, to allow room for the wheelchair). Such vans are often ungainly and extremely fuel-inefficient, and the modifications to allow wheelchair access are expensive. The Kenguru, designed by Hungarian rehabilitative services company Rehab Ltd., is in most respects the exact opposite from the modified van: small, efficient, and built from the ground up to fit the needs of wheelchair users. The Kenguru was a top nominee for the 2005 INDEX design award in the "Community" category (won by Architecture for Humanity).

The concept is simple:

The car’s interior space has no front seat – just a space built to house the driver’s own wheelchair so all he/she has to do is simply roll in through the extra large car doors and into position. The wheelchair locks into place, within easy reach of the car’s controls which are centred around a joystick.

The designer's goal was to create a vehicle that would be easily used by disabled drivers, with minimal maintenance and reliable operation, all on a platform that used an "environmentally sound energy source." Like most electric mini-cars, it has a limited range -- up to about 60 kilometers, or roughly 35 miles -- and travels at speeds limited to surface streets -- up to 40 km/h, or roughly 25 miles per hour. A Kenguru wouldn't replace the modified van so much as complement it, providing a much more maneuverable and efficient mode of local transportation.

I'm always happy to see designers pay attention to the needs of the physically disabled, as they're a woefully-underserved community, but one that will grow in number as more of us live longer lives. Moreover, the kinds of design thinking that goes into adaptive technologies very often has immediate benefits for the broader populace, either for economy-of-scope reasons (as with curb cuts at corners, meant for wheelchairs but useful for people pushing baby strollers, handcarts, etc.) or because having to re-evaluate product design can trigger new insights. I wouldn't expect the Kenguru to take off for non-disabled buyers, but I could certainly see its design ideas being applied more broadly in mini-vans and other family-focused vehicles.

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p.s I support the MS Society www.mssociety.org and WYNGS www.wyngs.org

Two thirds of the people living with MS are women, and women often are the care providers for everyone else.

Thank you "In Women We Trust" for the tip on this awesome new "car" for our "transportation challenged" love ones!