There is a rising number of bike commuters in the US, and they are increasing their demands for protected bike lanes, which are riding tracks segregated from streets to keep motorists away from more susceptible micro-mobility vehicles. Interestingly, a toy motorized mini-street sweeper is needed to make one of these scenarios a reality.
Protection for cyclists in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has now been completed with the addition of a Westvac LS125, a little electric maintenance truck.
Maintaining and Protecting Bike Lanes
In a report by Electrek, the city aims to boost the number of protected bike lanes along its roads with bollards and vertical dividers.
While more eco-friendly than their gas-powered counterparts, full-size electric street sweepers are still too big to fit in most bike lanes. Thus, scaled-down versions are essential for reserving bike lanes in high-traffic areas while allowing motorists access.
Bike lanes, like streets, need to be swept regularly to remove hazards like trash and broken glass. Such upkeep is essential for roads and trails used by bicycles and motorcycles.
Last week, the City Council unanimously approved spending around $250,000 on an electric mini-sweeper, enabling the municipality to maintain the road surface while installing separators along bike lanes.
Dharma Akmon, a council member, told Michigan Live, "The purchase is going to allow us to maintain the single-track bike lanes, and that has been an impediment to the installation of bollards. So, very quickly, we're going to be able to put bollards where there aren't any."
The New Mini-Sweeper
The 48-inch wide mini-sweeper may not be quick at 15 mph (25 km/h), but it was designed for labor, not speed.
Nine hours of use time is possible because of the 62 kWh battery. It means, as Electrek stated, staff can work all day and plug it into a regular J1772 socket for Level 2 EV chargers at night to keep going.
According to Molly Maciejewski, the city's public works manager, automobiles and trucks have constantly encroached upon newly constructed bike lanes.
After their construction, problems with unauthorized car use of the bike lanes have arisen. The Downtown Development Authority proposes putting up centerline delineators along the bike lanes to help with this problem. Outside the central business district, the city also plans to construct smaller bikeways measuring no more than 10 feet in width.
As Akmon remarked, the new mini-street sweeper was the only thing stopping the city from creating dedicated bike lanes to keep motorists away from bicycles, scooters, and other micro-mobility units and their operators.
"The purchase of a new small sweeper will mean we can, in pretty short order, upgrade buffered bike lanes into protected bike lanes by installing the several hundred vertical delineators we already have in inventory and ready for deployment."
