Other ideas that have been tried

Cost and tradition are the vital marketing ingredients. Production is usually producer-driven not consumer. People produce what they have been taught to produce and don't often look for innovations. They have to be convinced that the improvement suggested will work and won't cost them too much.

The Kisumu Innovation Centre manager, Martin Osumba, talks almost wearily about the efforts they have made to change people's thinking. There is an experimental bicycle rickshaw at his workshops. Although these have been successful elsewhere in the world, it has not caught on in Kenya.

They have also tried using panniers at the sides of the back wheel to carry baggage but again this has not been an accepted innovation.


Transportation

Before you begin

Web references

Specific design context
 
1. Product Design - A portable carrier

2. Product Design - An improved bicycle taxi seat

3. Product Design - Firewood Carrier

1. A portable carrier for vets

The area where paravets work

The origins of the roads
 
What are the roads like?
 
What are the bikes like?
 
How do they carry their equipment now?
 
What's wrong with current methods?
 
What distance do they travel daily?
 
What's their ideal carrier?
 
What diseases do they Treat?
 
What equipment do they carry?
 
What carrier making skills and materials are available?
 

  2. An improved bicycle taxi seat

The area where the taxis operate

The bicycle taxi business in Kisumu
 
What's a bicycle taxi like?
 
What are the current problems?
 
What would be an ideal bicycle taxi?
 
Have they tried other ideas
 
What materials and skills are available locally?
 
A bicycle taxi for a paravet?