Gannet Design,founder Ulfert Janssen is one of the few automotive and transportation designers in the world who works in both the two- and four-wheeled domains. Ulfert these days works primarily in transportation and product design and development, but spent a decade at Renault’s Barcelona design studio involved in advanced concept design, with stints at Samsung in Korea and Nissan in Japan, and has been involved with a diversity of production cars from the Renault Twizy to the Infiniti FX.
Ulfert was also responsible for trend scouting in Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul where he made multiple trips as a photographer. He is best known to auto and motorcycle enthusiasts for his designs which regularly set social media alight. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Design from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, USA.
Ulfert and I have been corresponding across the last few months, discussing future sustainable transportation. The following interview is made up of excerpts from our email correspondence.
Gizmag: The world of personal transportation is changing rapidly. China is now the world's largest producer of cars, India the world's largest producer of motorcycles, the world's arterial roads are becoming clogged with traffic and the world's carpark is adding to pollution levels at an unprecedented rate. What changes to the world of personal transport do you foresee globally over the next decade or two?
Ulfert Janssen: As much as we love our automobiles, I think it is now obvious to everybody that the number of cars cannot keep growing as it has in the last few decades. The level of smog in Beijing is now so bad that it needs to be tackled swiftly. Most big cities around the globe are headed in the same unfortunate direction and the situation needs to be addressed urgently.
Most commuters drive alone in their cars and in big cities that simply does not make sense. Mega cities must enhance their public transportation, which is the key. In Tokyo you don’t need a car as public transportation is well designed and by far the quickest and best way to move around the city. London has found an effective way of reducing traffic levels with its congestion charges.
At the same time micro vehicles such as the Renault Twizy (above) or the Cityhopper concept (below) and electric scooters need to be given more benefits so people are motivated to switch to smarter personal transportation solutions and reduce their use of traditional internal combustion engine cars.
People might always have a desire for fancy cars and big SUVs, but circumstances have changed, and cars of that size will need to be enjoyed in moderation. All of the major carmakers are now introducing smaller size SUVs, and there is a clear trend of downsizing. Eco friendly micro solutions must become the SUVs of tomorrow.
Lots of people, me included, will always be fascinated by automotive culture; the speed, the aesthetic and the fascinating engineering of fast cars and motorcycles, but the needs of cities and ecological imperatives are changing fast, and they demand different solutions, which also presents the opportunity to create new type of vehicles and more relevant design concepts.
Gizmag: How will personal transportation design change to alleviate the problems of congestion and pollution? Will there be differences in the solutions for rich countries and for poorer, developing countries?
UJ: For the emerging countries it would be great to develop a special fund to catapult their infrastructure into the future, so they can avoid going through the same process and mistakes the so-called developed countries did.
As developing countries can start building from scratch, they also have the opportunity of going a step ahead, leapfrogging a generation of infrastructure, and building a transportation concept which is better suited for a sustainable future. Unfortunately, and understandably, they desire the same products as everyone else and therefore this might be difficult to change. Big cities in "rich" countries have their own quite different needs to solve out the problems of congestion and pollution, while they also have the power and influence to set new trends and standards globally. If those solutions are designed cleverly, their initiatives can look smart and cool, and people will want to be a part of it.
In Barcelona, for example, at the front of the queue at traffic lights there's a special reserved zone for scooters and all two wheelers, so they get the priority.
Barcelona combines that traffic light priority with bicycle lanes and a bicycle sharing system, like in Paris and other cities trying to promote bikes to reduce traffic in the city. These initiatives redesign people’s behaviors in personal transportation, and reduce short commuting by car without forced actions. These sorts of initiatives will influence not only the city itself, but also the mind of people elsewhere including the emerging countries, and it could bridge the gap in some ways.
Gizmag: What changes are needed to personal transportation devices to make them more attractive, safer and useful to commuters?
UJ: I think the circumstance in big cities is the main problem and it's not necessarily the product range, as there is already a diverse palette of narrow-track transportation devices available to commuters such as bicycles, electric bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, three-wheelers, micro cars, tandem four-wheelers and so on.
People are understandably afraid to ride a two-wheeler in the same traffic flow as cars. By separating the two types of traffic, you cancel the David versus Goliath situation as they do in Amsterdam where they have separate bicycle lanes.
Lightweight transportation devices need to become safer too. Bigger motorcycles now have anti-lock braking systems (ABS) and soon those and similar safety features will trickle down to smaller two-wheelers and better materials will make scooters lighter and easier to maneuver.
Source: Gizmag
