Gas Too Expensive? Try Human Power

Back in 1983, when the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) held its first-ever Human Powered Vehicle Challenge, gas was about 81 cents a gallon, peak oil theorists were considered mostly crazy Chicken-Little types and global warming was but a vague and distant threat.

How times have changed.

Today’s circumstances make human powered vehicles sound more appealing than they probably did 25 years ago. Sweat-fueled technology doesn’t consign us to traveling at 20 mph or less, either, or to living our lives within a 10-mile radius of home. At least, that’s what competitors in the 25th annual Human Powered Vehicle Challenge, or HPVC, aim to prove when they meet this weekend at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Starting today, more than 250 competitors representing 30 teams from across the U.S. (and one from Venezuela) will gather at UW-Madison to battle at human powered vehicle feats of strength, speed and endurance. The competition includes a 100-meter sprint race (Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon), a 10-kilometer utility race (Saturday from 1:30 to 4 p.m.) and a 65-kilometer endurance relay (8:30 a.m. to noon Sunday). All the vehicles will be on display Friday from 11 .m. to 7 p.m.

UW-Madison’s entry, a hand- and arm-powered vehicle, was designed especially for the utility race, a one-kilometer course with obstacles, ramps and hairpin turns.

The Wisconsin competition is actually one of three sponsored this year by the ASME. HPVC West took place last week at the University of Nevada in Reno, and HPVC Latin America is scheduled for Sept. 2 through 4 in Maracaibo, Venezuela.

The ASME says its goal in the HPVC is to find a person-powered method of transport “that can be used for everyday activities ranging from commuting to and from work to going to the grocery store.” So far, the contest has proven that human energy can power a vehicle for long distances and to speeds of up to 60 mph.