ABSTRACT

Microcab has been developed with the objective of safely and comfortably carrying a wheelchair user, in addition to meeting the needs of passengers with a variety of abilities, within a vehicle for a total of three passengers. Evaluation of the design by people with disabilities at an early stage was influential in establishing the format, layout and detailing of the vehicle. Inspired by the rickshaw culture of the East, Microcab was originally conceived as a very lightweight part of the public transport infrastructure, particularly for cities such as London with their attendant problems of congestion and pollution. At that time the decision to make Microcab fully electrically powered was taken with the initial focus on low-weight solution as offered by a 3-wheeled design, however variety of concepts were under consideration, including 4-wheeled layout. This design was influenced by a number of visual design exercises conducted by design professionals, academics and students incorporating visual elements from the 2003 prototype H3 vehicle.