What is a "vehicle" category or classification for skateboards, bicycles, scooters etc?

Question

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?

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

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.

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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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