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Assist

December 14, 2017

He was a writer. He wrote stories at home. When he needed some refreshment from being stuck, he went to the park near his apartment. Looking at the greenery would always make him calm and he sometimes would get some ideas. Although he never liked sports, he wanted to do more active things which would stimulate his brain, and furthermore would be good for his health. As he was mainly at his desk in his apartment, his life was unhealthy. There was a famous novelist who was a marathon lover and ran every day. The novelist wrote in his autobiography that running gave him energy in order to write long stories and while running he would have some inspirations for his new stories. He once tried jogging but soon gave up, and after jogging he was too tired to write! He had a bicycle and sometimes he used it to go to the supermarket or for short term refreshment, but not so often. Just pedaling it was tiring for him. His living place had many slopes. And then one day, he learned about electric assist bicycles. On this day, he was pedaling his bicycle to the supermarket and suddenly a man passed by him. It was shocking for him because the guy was rather old but his pedaling was strong. His bike was a sports type and the old man's bike seemed to be a regular bike. As he felt offended, he started to pedal hard but couldn't catch the old man. He couldn't understand what was happening. But soon he figured it out. When he got the supermarket, the old man was parking his bike in front of the supermarket. The old man realized that he was looking at his bike and he introduced the bike as an electric assist bicycle. He said, "I bought this one recently. This is amazing. Do you want to try?" He was surprised that the old man offered to a complete stranger a try on his bicycle. Maybe he wanted to tell somebody about his excitement. After the old man gave some instructions about the bike, he started to pedal. Soon the motor of the bike started to assist his pedaling. As he pedaled stronger, the assist became stronger. He felt like he was riding like the wind. After this incident, he bought an electric assist bicycle. After he started his electric assist bicycle, his active area doubled. He used roads that he had never used before. When he drove his car, he avoided narrow roads. When he rode on his former bicycle, he chose the nearest roads. Now he willingly used new roads. If it became a dead end, he would return and choose another road. It was not any trouble because he wasn't tired at all. Electric assistance gave him a new way to explore. "But...," he thought. Actually, he had known about the existence of electric assist bicycles but he hadn't been curious about them. He thought that if he wanted to go easy he would use a car. And, if he wanted to be eco and money friendly, he would use his bicycle. The electric assist bicycles seemed to be halfway. Maybe this new idea was between something: troublesome, safety, freedom, ecology, healthy, cost, etc. He hated to wear a big helmet when he rode a motorbike. When using his car, he felt some sense of guilt because he always drove his car alone. It was a burden for the environment. But he wasn't so ecologically oriented as to use a bus. He didn't like to walk to the bus stop and he usually had to wait for a bus for a certain amount of time. His new electric assist bike weighted about 20kg. If his car was 1t, it was 50 times lighter. Just to transport his 70kg or so body his car seemed to be too much. He searched on the Internet and found data about his city, and studied about the ratio between the number of private cars and the number of the passengers. Result was this: On weekdays, 1.3 person on average used their own car. If it was in the morning, 1.1person, 90 percent of drivers drove alone. In the afternoon only 20 percent of cars had 2 people on weekdays. More than 3 riders in the car was less than 5 percent. On Saturdays 60 to 80 percent of drivers drove alone depending on the time. On Sundays 40 to 70 percent riders were alone. He thought. "We now talk about auto driving systems but in the first place, do we need our own car?" In his case, maybe he only needed his car on rainy days and in the winter, and sometimes when he needed to transport something, or wanted to drive with his friends or his old mother. In fact, it was not so much. If he got a good alternative, he could change owning a car, maybe just using a taxi.   "And ...," he came up with the idea. If there were machines which were set on his legs, and they assisted his pedaling, he wouldn't even need an electric bicycle anymore. He could ride on a regular bike with this power assist machine. He might not even need a bicycle. He could run by himself in his power suit. And, he could accelerate his suit's speed ...  He laughed and started to think about his new SF story: In this society, there were no cars. People realized how enjoyable when they ran by their own ...

*stimulate :刺激する
*term :期間
*offended :気分を害された
*instruction :注意事項
*double :二倍になる
*explore :探検
*halfway :中途半端
*oriented :志向の
*alternative :代用、代替案