Image Courtesy of Capital Bikeshare
Last year, a Capitol Hill dad invented a child’s bike seat that can be attached and unattached–in seconds and without tools–to a Capital Bikeshare bike. He entered it into the DC state fair, where it won first place for the best bicycle accessory. He has further refined the design, which works exclusively with bikeshare-style bicycles, and is now looking for product testers.
It all started when Crispen Wilson was trying to find a way to get his 5-year-old daughter to school. Wilson’s daughter attends a school twelve blocks from their home–too far to walk, but not far enough to drive. He noticed there were Capital Bikeshare bikes just around the corner from his house and right next to the nearest metro at the school. He knew the bikes could help him streamline their morning routine–and he could save quite a bit of time and even some money. After taking some measurements of the Capital Bikeshare bicycle, Wilson disappeared into his shop. He emerged several hours later with the first prototype.
After much testing and a few prototypes, Wilson has refined the design to the current model, which is made from recycled materials, weighs less than two pounds, and is suitable for children from age two and a half to age seven.
“I find I save about 30 minutes each morning and evening on pick-up and drop-off. I also save a significant amount of money, and I even get in a little exercise,” says Wilson.
Wilson has joined the three percent of District residents that report biking to work and the 22,200 Capital Bikeshare members. With 103 cities now using bikeshare systems and over 105,000 bikes available, bikeshare systems around the world are growing. The inventor has been stopped by several people who are interested in buying the child bike seat, so he is selling a few to people interested in testing the seat and providing feedback. He’s found that most of those who buy the seat don’t yet have a Capital Bikeshare membership, but get one in order to use the seat.
For more information about the seat, please contact: ducycle@gmail.com
Interesting idea, but I don’t think you are allowed to install such a seat, temporary or not, on a Capital Bikeshare bike. If he wants to turn this into a profitable product, he should consult with the participating bikeshare jurisdictions about their rules on installing products and about carrying a second person on a bike. Better to clear all this up before spending more time on what could be a prohibited practice.
On bikeshare.com there are already items for sale that attach to the bikeshare bikes like coffee holders, custom bags and even an electric assist made by a company in NY that temporarily attaches to a Citibike.
Whenever you create a service (like bikeshare) people will want to get involved., they will create add-ons and things to make the system better fulfill their needs. Child seats on bicycles are a very standard accessory these days, I see them all over, rear mounted, front mounted. I have also seen people on bikeshare bikes with a child standing on the bar or worse, perched in the front basket, , this seems like a much better safer alternative.
Just shows you how bad our economy is when people have to ride bikes to work. Screw that!!!