Posted by: Will – Priority Juggler on June 18th, 2007

I’ve been cycling to work most days of late, as we no longer have the electric van that we trialled recently so my options have been either extortionate pay as you go tube fares or a fun and healthy bike ride to kick the day off. Not much contest really. However, I clearly had bad karma last Thursday because I managed to fly over my handlebars and break my wrist on Kensington High Street (Ken High St was undamaged). Not exactly the start to the day that I was hoping for. However, it was just the start to the day that the junior nurse at the hospital was hoping for, as apparently such breaks are quite rare…”Ooooo, a ‘Smith’s fracture’!” he said excitedly, and grabbed my X-rays for a good look. All I could think when he said that was “why is a type of fracture named after a person?!” Did Smith “discover” the fracture or was he/she the first person to break a wrist in this particular way?!

Here’s me before I received the “it’s broke” verdict, thinking “Hey, maybe it’s just a bad sprain and it’s meant to stick out like that. Now to pull a stupid face for the camera and pretend it doesn’t hurt!”

Anyway, all this excitement gave me some unexpected time off in hospital to muse on Arena related matters. Our electric van trial was good, but I was quite concerned about the range of the vehicle. Also, for something like £10k, you’re basically buying a battery and not much else. It felt unbelievably cheap and not particularly safe, to be perfectly honest, whereas for the same money you can get a totally specced up van from the big manufacturers that’s bullet proof. There have been some good articles recently on the topic of electric vehicles, eg in the economist and in the blogosphere (all of Adam’s points about the City car apply to the van we trialled). One thing that really caught my eye was this – basically a showdown between lots of different electric vehicles, including two that are currently in production and are available to buy. The pics from the event can be seen on revolve’s main site, though they didn’t say who won (or if anyone dropped out)…so we’re currently none the wiser on what the best bet is. Any input on this front would be very welcome.

For now, we’re still mulling things over. It feels like electric vans need a fair bit more development before they’re a truly viable and affordable option for businesses, rather than just a small part of a delivery fleet. We’ll probably get one to start with and then swap over our other vehicles as the technology becomes more efficient and makes better business sense, unless the one vehicle we get is a roaring success.

Meantime, it’s the tube for me, as I’m in plaster with a metal plate holding my wrist together. But as soon as the doc gives me the all clear, I’m off to buy a new bike and get back to cycling. Definitely the best option, broken wrists aside! So I’m pleased that I found this scheme recently, which gives tax breaks on buying a bike. A great initiative.

Which leaves just one more burning question: don’t the people at the hospital realise how ludicrous they make everyone look by forcing them to wear anti-thrombosis tights?! I reckon it’s a plan to make sure that you never go back unless you really, really need to, as you know that if you do, you’ll have to look ridiculous for the duration of your stay! I certainly have no intention of going back!

Filed under: Distribution, Ethics & Environment, General, Setting up on June 18th, 2007

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