Partnership Expands Mobility Options
Over the past few years, shared electric scooter fleets have taken off as a way to get around a city without owning a car. Although COVID-19 has had an impact on travel in general, scooters are now an ideal means of personal travel—safer than public transportation.
But what if you use a wheelchair?
Now there’s a good answer to that question. Voi, a Swedish scooter company founded in 2018, is the leading European micromobility operator. The company received feedback from community partners and disability advocates in the more than 50 cities in 11 countries they operate in and decided to act.
Voi has announced a partnership with Klaxon Mobility to bring Klaxon’s Klick electric handbike for wheelchairs into Voi’s mobility fleets. Klaxon, an Austrian company founded in 2015, specializes in devices that attach to manual wheelchairs. The secret is a patented linking system that comes with the Klick. Once the user sets it up below the seat of their wheelchair, they can quickly and easily attach the Klick with, yes, just a click.
Helping Wheelchair Users To Go With the Flow
One thing you may not have considered is that wheelchairs use protected bike lanes but are often moving more slowly than the bicycles and e-bikes, creating traffic issues. Now, wheelchair users can “go with the flow” and also be able to easily travel as far as they need to go without getting tired.
Voi plans to work with city transportation officials and accessibility organizations to make sure the rental process is streamlined and that the services are widely available. The company is running a pilot with the Klaxon Klick in New York City, where wheelchair users will be able to rent a Klick on-demand just like a scooter, through the Voi phone app. The Klick will also be available as a monthly rental, and in this case the wheelchair user will have their own Klick to themselves.
The Klaxon Klick looks like the front part of an e-bike, with handlebars, a wheel, a battery and enough of a frame to connect the linking mechanism on any kind of manual wheelchair, including folding ones. On Klaxon’s website you can see a selection of models with a choice of size, range and power—from Mini to Monster. The wheels, tire type and batteries vary. The variety of choices lets you balance portability with power, and gauge how easy it is to put it into your trunk. Prices will vary, as well, of course.
Be sure to watch the videos on the website, too. The shots of the happy couple out for a drink at the sidewalk café and the gleeful rider on the beach are moving.
Klicking into Gear
The Standard ES Klick weighs under 18 pounds, not including its battery, and has a range of about 16 miles. The Monster weighs 33 pounds (including the biggest, fattest tire) and has a range of about 25 miles. These are at the lowest speed and on a level surface. The Mini, with it’s little eight-inch tire, weighs 17 pounds, has the same 16-mile range as the Standard, and is the easiest to travel with.
If you’re not using a wheelchair, but need to sit down to ride, Voi is prototyping an electric trike as part of the New York fleet.
If the New York trial goes well, you may be seeing Voi and the Klick in your city soon.
Story by Steve Schaefer
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