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I am putting together information regarding common suburban vehicles. I have a list of vehicle categories with several vehicle examples in each category. For example:

SUV

  • Ford Explorer
  • Jeep Wrangler

Sports Car

  • Mazda MX-5
  • Toyota 86

Super Car

  • Chevrolet Corvette
  • Nissan GTR

Truck

  • RAM 2500
  • Chevrolet Colorado

I would also like to add a combined category for non-powered vehicles such as skateboards, bicycles, scooters etc commonly used by children. I'm not sure what exactly to call this category though. I don't really like "non-powered vehicles" because it tends to have a negative connotation which the kids using them won't appreciate. I'm open to slang if it is relevant, but it does not necessarily have to be slang. Any suggestions?

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4 Answers 4

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The Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator calls them pedestrian conveyances.

Pedestrian conveyance. i.e., any human powered device by which a pedestrian may move other than by walking or by which a walking person may move another pedestrian (e.g., baby carriage, roller skates, skateboard and non-motorised scooters and wheelchairs);

The ICD 10 Category V00 for various pedestrian conveyance accidents is more specific, using the term rolling-type pedestrian conveyance in a breakdown of accident types. The conveyances listed by name at item V00.1 are in-line roller-skate, non-in-line roller-skate, skateboard, scooter (nonmotorized) and heelies. Other categories include gliding-type (V00.2) and flat-bottomed (V00.3) pedestrian conveyance accidents.

Note that push-bikes (non-motorised bicycles) are notorious for falling into a grey area as far as their legal status as a vehicle is concerned. This is dealt with as a special case, for example:

under the New York Vehicle and traffic law a bicycle is defined, statutorily, as a vehicle

Whether they (bicycles) are pedestrian conveyances is also questionable, as noted in the comments below. The following heading can be read either way, depending on the scope of the word "other":

Bicycles, skateboards, scooters, rollerblades and other ‘pedestrian conveyances’ are great fun for kids. - Kidsafe

Consider the labels given by department stores (note: these links go to commercial sites):

  • Walmart - Kids' Bikes & Riding Toys
  • Target - scooters, skateboards & skates
  • Toys R Us - Bikes, Scooters & Ride-Ons

The lack of a generic term in commercial sites suggests that there isn't a popular/slang label for this category of conveyances.

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  • Doesn't pedestrian conveyance specifically exclude cycles? That wouldn't fit the OP's request. On the other hand if you've got categories for sports car and super car you can probably have bicycles and another category
    – Chris H
    Apr 14, 2017 at 13:59
  • Yes, it does. In the US, the closest thing we have to the above reference is probably the Nat Bureau of Health Stats International Classification of Diseases document. It defines how the US classifies vehicular injury accidents. books.google.com/…
    – Phil Sweet
    Apr 14, 2017 at 14:06
  • @ChrisH Good catch. I've made a note of it in my answer.
    – Lawrence
    Apr 14, 2017 at 15:07
  • I wonder which class the hobby-horse comes in? The baby-walker (if the garden gate is unfortunately left open)? Apr 14, 2017 at 18:33
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    This seems a far better answer than those at the duplicate. I'll flag for mod intervention. Apr 15, 2017 at 16:19
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My first thought is that perhaps the word manual might serve as part of the answer.

I think this as I work with people with disabilities and my clients often have both motorized chairs which are often called power chairs and human powered chairs which are referred to as manual chairs.

So perhaps something like manual transportation might work.

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  • Hi Linda, welcome to the site! Rest assured you are not breaking any rules of the site, nor, so far as I can tell, any rules of the English language. :-)
    – Hellion
    Feb 6, 2017 at 22:52
  • As a way to thank you for your welcome, Hellion, I was going to click that little icon that looks like it is this site's version of a "thumbs up", but when I saw it was supposed to indicate that your comment contributed to the answer - I quickly reversed it - I have seen a looot of judgements about rule breaking on this site so didn't want to attract that criticism just yet - maybe another day on another subject. So instead, I will just say 'Thanks'. :) Feb 6, 2017 at 23:01
  • So you could have a manual chair manual. Apr 15, 2017 at 16:18
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Human-powered vehicles (HPVs)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-powered_transport

Examples include:

  • Bicycles (the most efficient HPV land vehicle)
  • Velomobiles
  • Skateboards
  • Canoes
  • Solar Airships

and a variety of other human-powered, non-motored human transport machines.

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From Wikipedia

Rickshaw: 'The word rickshaw originates from the Japanese word jinrikisha (人力車, 人 jin = human, 力 riki = power or force, 車 sha = vehicle), which literally means "human-powered vehicle"'

Though generally two or three wheeled the term four wheeled rickshaw can be employed.

From my experience it is generally for those vehicles which ferry passengers, that this term is used.


From http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/step-on-it-please--the-clean-getaway/2006/06/23/1150845381655.html

In referance to a pedicab...

' "We refer to it jokingly as the Rolls Royce of rickshaws," said Jan Stubbings, who founded the Sydney business with her partner, Andrew Osborne, after seeing the pedicabs in Berlin.

"People tend to associate rickshaws with developing countries. But they are in many countries that are looking for an alternative to petrol-driven engines - including 19 European countries."'


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