Bicycles before batteries

London Mayor, Boris Johnson has announced he may follow in the footsteps of his Parisian counterpart by offering a public electric car hire scheme.

Such a service would be popular with Londoners frustrated by private car ownership and captures perfectly the zeitgeist for all things frugal and green, but it may be an idea ahead of its time.

The Lohner Electric Chaise of 1898 had a top speed of 31mph and a maximum range of 30 miles; a performance bettered only slightly by today’s expensive electric city cars.

The very same point in history saw the advent of the modern bicycle, a technology that has seen as little development over the last 100 years as the electric car but one that is ready and waiting to provide the ideal urban transport.

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