Our b-bug project, in partnership with Dragon Electric Vehicles, has been keeping the Prospectors busy all summer hence the lack of posting on this blog. We apologise.
The b-bug project, part-funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, involves us building two lightweight, electric buggies for a trial with visitors to the Brecon Beacons National Park next summer (2011). The idea is to offer an alternative to the car for short journeys that's funky and cool and is powered by 100% pure Welsh rain (thanks to electricity locally generated from our Talybont Energy micro hydro scheme).
This summer, we've been collecting data from holiday cottages and caravan sites within the National Park on the actual travel which visitors undertake whilst staying in the area. We will be analysing the data and writing our report in the next month. We've been surprised and slightly horrified by the amount of car travel which visitors do whilst staying here on holiday. It looks as if those staying in holiday cottages cover as many miles in a week here as they do in their return journey from home! (about 310 miles). In one case, a family from Germany visited Worcester, Bath and St David's from their holiday cottage near Brecon and then fitted in Bude and Torquay on their final day (600 miles in one day).
We've also been evolving the b-bug concept and value proposition by running demonstration sessions with the prototype b-bug at caravan sites and tourist attractions within the National Park. The b-bug logo and strapline (see above, designed by Jon Dixon, grew out of feedback from these sessions.
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