Human-powered transport is the transport of person(s) and/or goods using human

muscle Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of muscl ...

power. Unlike

animal-powered transport The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to animal-powered transport: Animal-powered transport – broad category of the human use of non-human working animals (also known as "beasts of burden") for the moveme ...

, human-powered transport has existed since time immemorial in the form of walking, running and swimming. Modern technology has allowed

machine A machine is a physical system using Power (physics), power to apply Force, forces and control Motion, movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to na ...

s to enhance human-power. Although

motorization Since the start of the twentieth century, the role of cars has become highly important, though controversial. They are used throughout the world and have become the most popular mode of transport in many of the more developed countries. In deve ...

has increased speed and load capacity, many forms of human-powered transport remain popular for reasons of cost, convenience, leisure, physical exercise, and environmentalism. Human-powered transport is sometimes the only type available, especially in underdeveloped or inaccessible regions.

Modes

Non-vehicular

* Crawling (human) * Walking (233 watts at 3 mph) ** Walking bus * Running (1,150 watts at 10 mph) *

Sprinting Sprinting is running over a short distance at the top-most speed of the body in a limited period of time. It is used in many sports that incorporate running, typically as a way of quickly reaching a target or goal, or avoiding or catching an op ...

(1,690 watts at 15 mph) * Swimming * Climbing and

mountaineering Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, a ...

* Ice skating, roller skating, and inline skating *

Cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

Human-powered vehicles (HPVs)

Land vehicles

Skateboards have the advantage of being so small and light that users can easily carry them when not skating. The most efficient human-powered land vehicle is the

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bic ...

. Compared to the much more common upright bicycle, the

recumbent bicycle A recumbent bicycle is a bicycle that places the rider in a laid-back reclining position. Most recumbent riders choose this type of design for ergonomic reasons: the rider's weight is distributed comfortably over a larger area, supported by ba ...

may be faster on level ground or down hills due to better aerodynamics while having similar

power transfer Energy transformation, also known as energy conversion, is the process of changing energy from one form to another. In physics, energy is a quantity that provides the capacity to perform work or moving, (e.g. Lifting an object) or provides heat. ...

efficiency. Velomobiles are increasingly popular in colder and/or wetter countries due to the protection they offer against the environment.

Cargo bike A cargo bike (also known as a box bike, carrier cycle, freight bicycle, cycletruck, or freight tricycle) is a human powered vehicle designed and constructed specifically for transporting loads. Cargo bike designs include a cargo area consisting o ...

s are used to transport cargo. Cycle rickshaws can be used as taxicabs. In 2016, AeroVelo cyclist Todd Reichert achieved the human-powered speed record of with a velomobile at Battle Mountain, Nevada. Dutch cyclist

Fred Rompelberg Fred Rompelberg (born 30 October 1945, in Maastricht) is a Dutch cycle sport, cyclist who is mainly known for taking several attempts to break the Absolute World Speed Record Cycling. On 3 October 1995 he motor-paced cycling, cycled behind a motor ...

set a speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah on October 3, 1995 while cycling in the wake of a motor dragster pace-car. The wake of the pace-car reduced the aerodynamic drag against which Rompelberg pedalled to almost zero. Greg Kolodziejzyk set two world records recognized by both the International Human Powered Vehicle Association and Guinness (TM) World Records on July 17, 2006 on a race track in Eureka, California. The first record is for the most distance traveled in 24 hours by human power , and the second for the world's fastest time trial (23 hours, 2 minutes). Both records were broken on August 6, 2010 by Christian von Ascheberg who drove in 19 hours, 27 minutes and managed to go in 24 hours with his Milan SL Velomobile. In the same race he also raised the 12-hour record to , which is an average of . In 1969, artists in a small

Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

town began the Kinetic sculpture race which has grown to a , three-day all terrain, human-powered sculpture race and county wide event. It is held every year on the last weekend in May. The

Shweeb Shweeb is a proposed personal rapid transit network in New Zealand, based on human-powered monorail cars. The project prototype was originally designed and implemented in Rotorua, New Zealand, as a leisure attraction. The proposed Shweeb tran ...

system is a proposed transit network using recumbent bicycle technology to power pods suspended from monorails. A test built in

Rotorua Rotorua () is a city in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. The city lies on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authority encompass ...

, New Zealand is open to the public as a leisure attraction. In September 2010 the system was chosen to receive funding from Google as part of project 10¹⁰⁰. There are no active proposals for its implementation.

Aircraft

=Fixed wing

The '' Pedaliante'' flew short distances fully under human power in 1936, but the distances were not significant enough to win the prize of the Italian competition for which it was built. The flights were deemed to be a result of the pilot's significant strength and endurance, and not attainable by a typical human. Additional attempts were made in 1937 and 1938 using a catapult system, launching the plane to a height of . With the catapult launch, the plane successfully traveled the distance outlined by the competition, but was declined the prize due to the takeoff method. The first officially authenticated regularly feasible take-off and landing of a human-powered aircraft (one capable of powered takeoffs, unlike a glider) was made on 9 November 1961 by Derek Piggott in Southampton University's Man Powered Aircraft (

SUMPAC The Southampton University Man Powered Aircraft (or SUMPAC) on 9 November 1961 became the first human-powered aeroplane to make an officially authenticated take-off and flight. It was designed and built by Southampton university students betwe ...

). Perhaps the best-known human-powered plane is the Gossamer Albatross, which flew across the English Channel in 1979. The current distance and duration record recognized by the FAI, a straight distance of in 3 hours and 54 minutes, was achieved on 23 April 1988 from Heraklion on Crete to

Santorini Santorini ( el, Σαντορίνη, ), officially Thira (Greek: Θήρα ) and classical Greek Thera (English pronunciation ), is an island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km (120 mi) southeast from the Greek mainland. It is the ...

in a MIT Daedalus 88 piloted by Greek cyclist Kanellos Kanellopoulos. The current speed record recognized by the FAI is held by Musculair 2, built by Günther Rochelt, which was flown at by Holger Rochelt in 1985.

=Helicopters

= The first officially observed human-powered helicopter to have left the ground was the Da Vinci III in 1989. It was designed and built by students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in California, USA. It flew for 7.1 seconds and reached a height of . The second was the Yuri I in 1994, designed and built by students at Nihon University in Japan. It flew for 19.46 seconds and reached an altitude of . On 13 June 2013, the AeroVelo Atlas was the first to complete a flight that lasted 64 seconds and reached an altitude of 3.3 meters, thus winning the

Sikorsky Prize The Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition was established in 1980 by the American Helicopter Society (AHS) International. The award, the AHS Sikorsky Prize, was given for the first human powered helicopter (HPH) to meet a set of ...

=Airships and balloons

= French inventors have built man-powered airships and

balloons A balloon is a flexible bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the per ...

. Solar balloons and solar airships are new types of balloons and airships. Because lift is supplied through buoyancy, human power can be devoted to thrust.

Watercraft

Human-powered watercraft include prehistoric, historic and well-known traditional and sporting craft such as canoes, rowing boats and

galley A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by oars. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, and low freeboard (clearance between sea and gunwale). Virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used ...

s. The term ''human-powered boat'' is often used for more modern craft using propellers and water wheels for propulsion. These can be more efficient than paddles or oars and especially allow the use of the leg muscles which are generally stronger than arm muscles, even for non-athletes. Competitive rowing boats use sliding seats to engage the legs for propulsion with an oar for this reason, but require considerable skill to use efficiently. In addition, there is little skill required for forward propulsion while looking forwards and craft such as pedalos are popular at resorts.

=Hydrofoils

= Hydrofoils have less water resistance at the highest speeds attainable by humans and are thus usually faster than displacement boats on short courses. The world speed record on water was set 27 October 1991 by MIT professor Mark Drela who pedalled a human-powered hydrofoil, "

Decavitator ''Decavitator'' is a human-powered hydrofoil equipped with pedals and an air propeller that was built by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It holds the human-powered speed record on water. The vehicle was displayed hanging in the entry ...

", to 18.5 knots (21.3 mph)(9.53 meters/second) over a 100-meter course in Boston, Massachusetts, US.

=Submarines

= In 1989, the first human-powered International Submarine Race (ISR) was held in Florida with 17 craft. Since then nine more races have been held. The races themselves have been moved from the waters of Florida to the David Taylor Model Basin at the Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Bethesda, Maryland, and are held biennially. At the 9th ISR in 2007 (in which 23 submarines participated) several new records were set: A single-person craft,

Omer5 ''Omer'' is the name of a series of human-powered submarines. The submarines were built by students of the ''École de technologie supérieure'' (School of Higher Technology) in Montreal, Quebec, for the International Submarine Races. {{As of, 201 ...

achieved a record speed of 8.035 knots breaking the Omer team's previous record of 7.19 knots set by Omer 4 in 2004. Also Omer 6 snatched up a record for non-propeller driven craft with a speed of 4.642 knots.

References

External links

Human Powered Vehicle Records

Human Powered Vehicle Challenge
- American Society Of Mechanical Engineers

Air

Human Powered Aircraft Group
- Virginia Tech
Human Powered Helicopters
- History, technology, people
Human powered blimp

Land

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Human Powered Vehicle Team
- Videos, photos, links, and other information about human powered land vehicles

Water

Human Powered Boats
- Events, photos, links
Human Powered Hydrofoils
from 1953 to 2005
''Decavitator'' Human-Powered Hydrofoil
- videos, documentation

{{Human-powered vehicles