This is a typical trade show scene: a new product being demonstrated to a potential customer. It’s only unusual because the trade show was in Dumaguete, and the product is a product of local industry here.
Local products are often on display here, but they usually are small things — candies, perfumes, toys. This is a genuine industrial product, made in a factory in Dumaguete by local workers.
It’s a new type of pedicab, and a vast improvement on the pedicabs now in service on the streets. It wouldn’t be hard to improve on these dangerous and uncomfortable machines.
The traditional pedicabs that clog our streets are unstable, and can be knocked over by any minor collision, spilling the passengers on the street in the middle of traffic.
They are difficult to get in and out of, even when empty. When they are full, it often happens that all the passengers have to get out, to unload a single passenger wedged in the back, thus, stopping all the traffic nearby.
When they are full, it’s impossible for the drivers to see other traffic beside them, and so they wind up driving blind.
Current pedicabs are made almost completely of steel, and are very heavy. In fact, they weigh more than the passengers — so most of the gasoline that the drivers must buy is burned just to move the sidecar itself.
This new pedicab is much better. It’s made of fiberglass, much lighter than steel; it’s more stable under stress, and more maneuverable; it’s designed for ease of entry and exit; it has much better sight lines for the driver. It also can be driven by electric power as an option.
It’s also more expensive and harder to build, so it may not replace the older pedicabs anytime soon.
But at least it’s a possible solution to an obvious problem here.
Ten years ago, people in Dumaguete were very conservative, even passive, in response to many public problems. This is, after all, a sizeable city with heavy traffic– and no traffic lights!
No one then would have imagined it possible to design this machine, to interest people in it, or to raise enough capital to actually produce it locally.
But things have changed over time, and the public has become more adventurous. Whether it succeeds or not, this pedicab at least demonstrates that what’s possible here has changed in the public mind.
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Author’s email: john.stevenson299@gmail.com
