Around the world urbanisation is increasing. Cities are becoming more crowded and city journey times are increasing with congestion. A high percentage of car journeys are short and involve only a single person. Governments are under pressure from the international community to reduce carbon emissions and improve the air quality in urban areas.

 

The proposed solution favoured by the international community, due to its minimal impact on existing city infrastructures, is the folding bicycle. A machine capable of transporting a commuter easily across short city commutes, while remaining portable and simple to store.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Folding bicycles have a number of intrinsic advantages over the standard safety bicycle, and this is largely due to their adaptability. One of the principal ways that commuters are discouraged from cycling to work, is the lack of storage space on buses or trains. In these circumstances, the compact nature of a folding bicycle enables greater portability and use within other storage facilities on board public transport. This is also true for those who commute via park and ride schemes, as a folding bicycle can be easily contained within a car boot, precluding the need for bicycle mounts or roof-racks. The additional implication of greater portability is the reduced risk of theft, as the bicycle no longer needs to be stored outside.

 

By nature,folding bicycles are more convenient than traditional models, and this enables the owner to use it more frequently. This is a common argument used by the British Cycling Federation to qualify its environmental benefits, as owners are more likely to find opportunities to cycle than using fossil-fuel powered modes of transport.

 

It is SynopTech’s aim to promote the use of folding bicycles and design a model that minimises both complication and weight. This is both a relevant and challenging undertaking under the UK CDIO Initiative. This initiative aims to replicate practical, real-world challenges, and therefore its introduction at an educational level intends to better prepare students for their future careers in engineering. Ultimately, the principal CDIO component of SynopTech’s folding bicycle project is to compete in the CDIO Competition against several other universities, in Summer 2016 at Queen’s University Belfast.

 

Join us on our journey through conception, design, manufacture and testing, as we bring the market’s latest ‘Synoptic Technology’ - The Commuter.

 

About