School Project Help

[jared myhrberg]

I'm a freshman engineering student and we have to come up with an idea and present a project on how to improve an existing idea or do something novel. my idea was coming up with an idea how to integrate ebikes onto college campuses, specifically mine.

Ideas for integration:
- parking/charging station
- identifying student/faculty needs for ebikes and provide solutions
- on campus facility to convert bikes or purchase premade options

this is a theoretical project although i may purchase a kit and put one together.

im looking for some ideas from ebike owners/users/enthusiast on how to make ebikes a viable option for college students and faculty with relatively short commutes.

thanks for uo

 

[JoePah]

Congratulations Jared on your Engineering career.. It's great that you choose affordable clean transportation as a project.

Don't think eBike ownership is viable on college campuses because of the high initial cost, high frequency of bike theft, and the more than regular maintenance and care required.. College students have better things to do!

What might be an interesting study is an EBike share program.. A lot of cities have bike share programs, and cities like Paris and London and Copenhagen (I think) have eBikes that are situated in key parts of the city.. The idea being that you pay a monthly or hourly fee, ride the bike to some other location and leave it, or return it. Large dormatories, off campus college apartments etc.. and on campus locations near the student center, etc.

OR if youre set on building an eBike, survey a bunch of people and find out what their travel needs are, budget etc, and try to build an eBike accordingly. Once you know what the parameters are, you can write a specification for an eBike, then develop a Bill of Materials, shop for the best prices, etc, then try building one.

If you do build an eBike, hold a Demo day at your school, then film people's reactions when they first ride it.. It's pretty entertaining!

Either way I wish you well on your project.

 

[Chris Nolte]

Jared. Welcome to the forum. That's a great project you are taking on. We are actually have a good amount of experience on this topic and I would be happy to help you. Shoot me an email at Chris [at] propelbikes.com and we can setup a meeting.