A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Advanced Technologies

Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2001

Transportation in Southeast Asian Metropolises has been a significant problem source for a long time. The newly introduced mass transportation systems have improved the situation, but in Bangkok and Manila for instance, the majority of the people still rely on motorized means to connect with public transportation. To provide an environmentally sustainable alternative for this purpose, non-motorized lightweight transp.ortation methods were reviewed. The concept of a push scooter as a personal transportation aid emerged as a potential solution and was selected for further studies. The proposed idea was to develop a portable human powered push scooter for short to medium range distances and thus reduce the need for motorized means in urban areas. Within this framework market review and competitive product analysis were carried out to define the starting point and to test the initial feasibility of the idea. This was complemented with a push scooter user survey to identify the actual customer needs. Resulted requirements were transformed to engineering characteristics and further on to product specifications with help of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method. Enhanced scooter concepts were designed according to the product specifications and evaluated to find the optimal solution. The most prominent concept was selected and corresponding documentation was created.