Contrary to a popular misconception put forward by some, cycling is a safe and pleasant activity, it is not ordinarily a dangerous or extreme sport. It should not therefore require a rider to don specialist protective clothing or equipment. This can be amply shown from Holland where thousands (or is it millions?) cycle in everyday clothing without the dubious added safety of a cycle helmet and without any significant ill effects.
The velomobile, which enables a rider to go further and/or faster, often for less effort, due to it’s aerodynamic body, serves to extend this ideal. As a side-effect, as it were, It also provides a substantial layer of protection in the rare event a rider is found in the path of danger.
David Hembrow, who himself rides a Mango velomobile, on his blog A View From the Cycle Path explains the reason why the Dutch cyclist is able to experience such safe and pleasant conditions. Regrettably the standard of high quality segregated infrastructure has not yet arrived in most other countries. It is therefore perhaps not surprising that the two case studies I was able to locate for this post were in Germany and the United Kingdom, where cyclists are regularly obliged to share the road, where and when, the risks for a high energy collision are much higher.
Firstly from Germany. Jan P. Puchelt has a site dedicated to the Aluminum Alleweder in which he illustrates the protection benefit provided by a velomobile when hit by a motor vehicle and I quote below:
It’s obvious that crash tests like in the car industries are infeasible with the small-scale production of the Alleweder. So it is even more important to document any accidents that have happened with Alleweders involved. Helmut Kuske happened to have such an accident. He was driving on a cycle path alongside a country road when a car, which has ignored a stop sign at an entry, crashed sideways into his Alleweder A2. The car pushed him sideways across both lanes of the road. He was lucky that he sat in an Alleweder. Exept for an concussion and a few slight injuries he was not harmed! On a normal bicycle he probably would have been run over by the car and would have been heavily injured.
The front bulkhead has been massively distorted when absorbing the energy from the impact. But the rivet connection of the thin aluminium plates survived the crash
… the bodywork has been significantly distorted by the massive side impact. However, it has hardly been crushed. The driver has not been crushed in the Alleweder.
The second example was rescued from the now defunct velomobiling.com website and does not have any photo illustrations. Tony Eastwood supplied an extensive report of a collision he experienced in 2004 in his home built velomobile in Wales, UK.
Coming up to Cae Afalau I’ll do a right hand bend at about 30 mph, a slightly gentler left-hand and then on to a great big open section that is one of my favourites. As I do the right hand bend I’ll really open up and hit my pedaling limit at about 35 mph – and it will be half-a-mile before I’m below 30 again. I look forward to a higher average.
I check the mirror for traffic behind me, there’s nothing. I get ready to take slightly higher line on the bend. A car, a black Fiat Punto, appears coming the other way. His back end swings out. I change my mind about the higher line on the bend and go for the kerb. The Punto oversteers, leaves the road, misses a telegraph pole and carries on spinning. He crosses the road towards me, broadside on it seems. I think I missed him – I’m wrong – he hits about a foot behind the front wheel. There’s a very short bang. I’m sliding along the road, I can’t see anything, something to do with the G force I think, but I’m still conscious. I come to a stop. I get easily out of the vehicle which is lying on its side – there is no roof any more, no wonder it’s easy. I’m alive, one of my elbows is wet and red but I’m alive, I can see, hear and still have all my limbs. For me life will still continue; I’ll still embrace my children, play the guitar, preach sermons. I’m euphoric – I look at my totally wrecked vehicle and and I’m still euphoric. I’m standing here alive, and well, and praising God’s providence in preserving me whole – I’ve just hit something at over sixty miles an hour and survived. My own vehicle saved my life – 8 years work gone in 1/20 of a second but I’d make the same bargain any time. The police man and ambulance man think so too – they are amazed, full of praise for the vehicle. It’s a wonderful accident – can you have such a thing? – I can simply walk away with just one small hole in my left arm, a reminder of what could have been.
No one else is hurt – the driver, a nice young man having his first accident, is terribly shocked but he’s OK. His car’s wrecked, my bike seems to have taken a lot off it and the wall’s done the rest. And that, I guess, is my last ride on a velocycle for some time. If I’m lucky the nice young man’s nice, kind insurance company will buy me a Leitra, Quest , or even pay for a replica – but as they say, the jury is still out.
He did replace his smashed velomobile with a Quest and supplied an impressive write-up which was published in Velovision Magazine Issue 25, March 2007.
Finally if any readers know of any other examples please share using the comments below.