life
‘INTELLIGENT’ TRANSPORT What this means for the Gibraltarian community.
BY OLIVER COX
I
was introduced to the term ‘Intelligent Transport’ during a fascinating conversation with Stuart from E-Bike Gibraltar. I had initially envisaged this term to mean the rise of robotics in the world of transport and the unavoidable demise of humanity, but how wrong could I have been? Impressively, it seems.
Investing in a cleaner means of transport not only benefits our carbon-cluttered atmosphere, but we in Gibraltar would see more noticeable local benefits such as less traffic, less noise pollution, and simply less hassle in daily life!
The term in fact means a cleaner, alternative means of transport that does not emit any form of pollution and is thus a more ‘intelligent’ form of transport for the planet.
I got the exciting chance to actually trial this E-Bike that I was going to write about. The E-Bike I rode was a Ruisse and Muller ‘Nevo Touring’. It was a sturdy machine that was comfortable to sit on and felt very secure throughout the whole ride at whatever speed I was going.
This is significant in relation to the endemic car-culture in Gibraltar where it is not uncommon for a family to have several cars per family. In fact, Gibraltar has one of the highest amount of cars per capita in the world; this is a sobering reality. 44
MY EXPERIENCE OF THE E-BIKE
The riding experince was brilliant. I was riding at the speed of the average moving car which worked perfectly in the traffic around town, as I would just break away
from the traffic and gracefully weave my way through. With its peddling assist I would be boosted. There are four options on the Power Assist, Eco, Tour, E-Mountain Bike and, my favourite, Turbo. I kept it on the Turbo setting, giving me a head start on the traffic. Each speed setting will give you more power the further you go up in settings, but the higher your power the less mileage you get.
A cleaner, alternative means of transport that does not emit pollution. With my gearing firmly on Turbo (of course!) I hit some of the most GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2020
