- Luud Schimmelpennink
Laurens ("Luud") Maria Hendrikus Schimmelpennink (born in
Amsterdam ,27 May 1935 ) is a Dutch social inventor,industrial designer , entrepreneur andpolitician . As of 2007 he is Managing Director of the [Ytech Innovation Centre] inAmsterdam . Schimmelpennink first came into public view in the early 1960s through his association with the Dutch Provocounterculture and the White Bicycle Plan.Since the mid 1960s Schimmelpennink has been active as an
industrial designer and social innovator, with special focus onsustainable transportation concepts. His work aims to both reducing the number of conventional motorcars incities orurban area s for environmental andpublic health reasons, and provide people with viable alternative means of getting around in the city.The White Bicycle Plan
Luud Schimmelpennink emerged on the Dutch social political scene as the main person behind the famous 1964 White Bicycle Plan in
Amsterdam , whereby he and colleagues collected several hundred bikes, painted them white, and left them around the city to be freely used. This initiative, called the White Bicycle Plan, originally existed as one in a series of White Plans proposed in the street magazine and youth movement Provo. The Dutch Provos were, by the standards of the times, a radical group that thought to provoke the establishment with playful demonstrations.On 22 February 1967 Schimmelpennink was elected to the Municipal Council of the City of
Amsterdam , but was unable to get the needed political support for his White Bicycle Plan. However, the basic model that Schimmelpennink and his colleagues created became an inspiration and model forCommunity bicycle program s which today are gaining serious momentum asNew Mobility Agenda alternatives in a growing number of European cities, includingHelsinki ,Copenhagen ,Amsterdam , Lyons andVilleurbanne .Latest White Bicycle system design summary
Schimmelpennink’s updated White Bicycle system is supported by a patented smart card technology intended to counter misuse. The integrated access, parking and control systems discourages theft, and the bicycles are immediately identifiable due to their unusual design. Registered users can access the White Bicycles in a network of unmanned parking lots around the city. Such parking lots are equipped with a main console and have racks that hold up to ten bikes. When a club member inserts a card with an embedded microchip into the console, they are asked to identify their final destination and at that time book the use of a bicycle for thirty minutes. The central computer identifies the user and makes a reservation for them at a free parking slot near their indicated destination point. The cyclist then has half an hour to get from point A to point B and deposit the bike as programmed. This is the basic structure of the
Lyons bicycle project and others that have come on line in the last few years. Schimmelpennink has freely contributed his knowledge to such initiatives.The White Car
In the mid-1960s, Schimmelpennink started work on another
new mobility concept, theWitkar . Designed as environmentally friendly, non-polluting,safe , low speed city transport, the Witkar is a small three-wheeled electric shared car. The car is white, the name meaning White Car in Dutch. The initiative was one of the first working [carshare] projects in the world using specially developed technology and a formal [carshare] operational program.The Witkar was available on a subscription basis to certified members of an otherwise open public subscriber group. TheWitkar cooperative opened to its users on 24 May 1968, and while it failed to get the political support needed to become a full scale, permanent part of the city’stransport landscape, it continued to offer service for its members until on October 27 1986 when it was decided by theWitkar -association to dissolve itself.Industrial Design Work
As an
industrial designer , Schimmelpennink's contributions include newbicycle designs, hardware and software systems to support vehicle sharing andfleet management , and the latest version of the White Bicycle concept - theSmart-card supported [http://depo.nl/en/index.html Depo/White Bicycle system] with a new Witkar citycarshare system presently under development.Political Positions
In 2002 and again in 2006, he was elected to the Municipal District Council of
Amsterdam Centrum, this time as a member of the Dutch Labor (Social Democrat) party PvdA. Schimmelpennink is currently working on a new Witkar-type project for Amsterdam as well as continuing to promote community cycles in Amsterdam and elsewhere.ee also
*
Amsterdam
*Bicycle
*Bicycle culture
*Car-free
*Carsharing
*Community bicycle program
*Cycling in the Netherlands
*Cycling
*Dutch politics
*Fietsvierdaagse
*Green transport
*New Mobility Agenda
*Paratransit
*Provo (movement)
*Shared transport
*Sustainable city
*Sustainable transportation
*Vélo'v
*Witkar External links
* [http://ecoplan.org/advocates/l-schimmelpennink-bio.htm Short biography of Schimmelpennink from New Mobility Agenda]
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,879340,00.html Time Magazine article of June 17, 1974]
* [http://www.depo.nl Information in Dutch on Fietsen project, 2000]
* [http://www.iisg.nl/collections/provo/b24-706.php White Bicycles]
* [http://205.188.238.109/time/magazine/article/0,9171,879340,00.html Witkar]
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