Wheelchair users will be able to ride electric bikes

Today, a company presents a prototype of a solution for wheelchairs to be coupled to electric bicycles to enable the disabled to be tourist guides in the cities.

The initiative, which has Turismo de Portugal partner, took a year and a half to be accomplished in the prototype today presented on the streets of the Parque das Nações in Lisbon.

“The idea is that this project can be used by other entities or tourism, we will give the idea, giving the rights to the idea so that other entities can develop it,” said FCB official Edson Athayde.

According to Edson Athayde, the presentation of the project concludes the first phase of the work, which will be followed by the elaboration of a “user manual” that will be made available to entities that show interest in applying the project.

“The design is the sum of a bicycle, a piece, and the wheelchair. The piece connects the normal bicycle to a normal wheelchair, it can be almost any bike and almost any chair,” he clarified.

According to the Secretary of State for Tourism, Ana Mendes Godinho, this is a project that allows “to make tourism accessible on the map and in the focus of entrepreneurs to accelerate change”.

“This project is interesting because of this because with this we will be able to give visibility to show that a person with reduced mobility can be a tour guide in a wheelchair coupled to a bicycle, which allows to somehow show a tourist destination,” said state Secretary.

According to the minister, this project “links to sustainability issues” and will allow Portugal “to position itself with innovative solutions”.