Protected bike lanes — or biking paths which can be bodily separated from roadways to maintain automobiles away from extra susceptible micromobility autos — have gotten more and more demanded by a rising inhabitants of motorcycle commuters within the US. And in a single case, they’re lastly being enabled by a shocking supply: a cute little electrical mini-street sweeper.

The pint-sized electrical upkeep car, often called a Westvac LS125, was the final piece of the puzzle lacking for Ann Arbor, Michigan’s protected bike lane plan.

The town has hoped to create extra protected bike lanes alongside its roadways by putting in bollards or vertical separators. However the slim lanes would have been too small for town’s upkeep autos to navigate.

Bike lanes, like roadways, require frequent avenue sweeping to rid them of harmful particles and obstacles. The truth is, such upkeep is maybe much more vital on paths utilized by two-wheeled autos.

The Metropolis Council voted unanimously this week to purchase an roughly $250,000 electrical mini-sweeper that may allow town to lastly set up separators alongside bike lanes whereas nonetheless sustaining the street floor.

As Council Member Dharma Akmon defined to Michigan Reside:

“The acquisition goes to permit us to keep up the single-track bike lanes, and that has been an obstacle to the set up of bollards. So, in a short time we’re going to have the ability to put bollards the place there aren’t any.”

The 48″ broad (122 cm) mini-sweeper won’t be quick at simply 15 mph (25 km/h), nevertheless it’s constructed for work — not for pace.

The 62 kWh battery offers it a nine-hour working time. Which means it could actually work all day, then recharge at night time with a typical J1772 connector for Degree 2 EV chargers.

The town’s public works supervisor Molly Maciejewski described how town’s lately put in bike lanes have suffered from fixed encroachment by automobiles and vans:

“Since set up, there have been points with unlawful entry by autos within the bikeways. To fight this challenge, the Downtown Improvement Authority needs to put in centerline delineators alongside the bikeways. Moreover, town needs to put in bikeways exterior of the downtown which can be narrower than 10 toes in width.”

As Akmon continued, the brand new mini-street sweeper is all that was stopping town from transferring ahead with its present plan to create the separated bike traces that may hold automobiles away from bikes, scooters, and different micromobility autos and their operators:

“The truth is, town has already laid out many of those devoted lanes, however hasn’t been in a position to set up the delineators as a result of we don’t have the tools to correctly keep the narrower lanes. The acquisition of a brand new small sweeper will imply we will, in fairly brief order, improve buffered bike lanes into protected bike lanes by putting in the a number of hundred vertical delineators we have already got in stock and prepared for deployment.”

Electrical full-size avenue sweepers exist, however regardless of their extra environmentally pleasant design, they’re nonetheless too broad to slot in most bike lanes.

That’s why miniature variations are vital for having the ability to carve off sections of roadways for bikes whereas nonetheless leaving entry to keep up the standard of the street.

Electrek’s Take

I do know it’s a reasonably particular area of interest, however I’m already fairly a fan of miniature electrical upkeep tools.

And so if my two passions of biking and mini e-machines can one way or the other be intertwined into an answer that advantages everybody, properly that feels like an ideal day to me.

When Ann Arbor will get their cute new mini-sweeper in, I’d like to have a go on it!

In all seriousness although, it’s nice to see cities discovering inventive options for embracing safer biking infrastructure. The truth that these options themselves are zero-emissions merely makes the entire thing even sweeter.