"Why is it I can't buy a car without a bumper to save money, but I can buy a1,200 cc Ninja motorcycle and spread my guts on the pavement a block from the dealership?" asked Dan Sturges, director of "new mobility" at frogdesign,when he spoke at a panel on mobility at Metropolis's Net@Work Conference earlier this year. "Why is there such a big gap between a bike and motor scooter and the small vehicle? How come there's nothing in between?"

That 'in-between' space -a small, practical, four-wheel vehicle -is something Sturges has been thinking of ever since he graduated from the Art CenterCollege of Design in Pasadena, California, the leading U.S. trainer of car designers, in 1986.

And Sturges' work has just become a little easier. In June 1998, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recognized a new vehicle class -thelow-speed vehicle -marking the first time the agency has created a new carcategory since 1973, when it created the light-duty truck.

The Neighborhood Electric Vehicle, or NEV, is the technical name for that class of vehicles that occupies the middle ground between a motorcycle and subcompact -a kind of souped-up golf cart. The Think, which Sturges and his team at frogdesign designed, falls into this category. It is a small, two- or four-seat electric vehicle, with a maximum speed of 25 m.p.h. and a range of 30 miles per charge, and will retail for about $6,000 when it is released by Ford later this year. These relatively benign little vehicles are meant toserve as second vehicles rather than as replacements for family cars, so they may be more successful than earlier efforts to design and market small electric cars.

Sturges wants to explore the place of the car in society and the implications of the Internet on mobility. To find meaningful solutions to problems of congestion, urban sprawl, fuel scarcity, and even declining civility, he proposes to examine them in the context of what he calls the "Community MobilitySystem." Sturges's department of new mobility focuses on using technology to create a coordinated transportation system that could substitute for the traditional car. We asked Sturges to explain some of the new thinking about personal transportation.

SUB CAR:
A key element in the new-mobility transportation system is the NEV. Sturges points out that 60 to 70 percent of all trips made by a single driver are five miles or less. The NEV, which is fueled overnight by about 40-50 cents worth of electricity, will get around for a fraction of the cost of a conventional car. The small size of the Think Neighbor makes it easy to park, allowing it to take up just half the space needed by a Ford Taurus.

When Ford's "Th!nk" electric-car division asked frogdesign to create the Think Neighbor's interior, they took the idea of an open, friendly, community environment and extended it to the vehicle's interior. "The tele-commuter whois tired of being stuck at home could drive into their local community and park the car, which could serve then as a little workplace or place to have lunch." Sturges explains. "Seats can swivel about or you can flip the rear seat down. Once you're looking in the opposite direction from the windshield,you will have a really nice sense of being at a park bench with a covering."

FLAGS:
At a center or hub of a community will be a neighborhood mobility center, where you can pick up packages, get to car sharing, and have access to mass transit. Mobility flags would be set down two miles apart in a community, consolidating traffic and business around them and thus discouraging sprawl. Sturges sees Davis, California, as the ideal place to try this on a city-wide basis. "They've already created a neighborhood commerce center where nobody is going to be two miles away from shopping or school," Sturges says. "They've spent five years with small vehicles on their streets, and the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, which is very intoeco-vehicles, is based there".

E-DOCKING:
Instead of a traditional large car driving to a retailer to pick up a package, e-commerce allows an order to be sent by truck to a community station. Sturges proposes that these receiving centers be somewhat like the automated lockers you find in airports or train stations. The package would be shipped from the retailer to the receiving center nearest you, and you could then pick up the package with your little neighborhood car.

CAR-LINKING:
Car-linking, or car-sharing, is a low cost alternative to car-leasing. Instead of owning a big, conventional car, you would rent one when you needed it with the option of choosing any size car to suit your needs. Sturges points out that the combination of having both public transportation and "cars on call" is ecologically sound, because it uses resources more efficiently. Switzerland has the world's biggest, most senior (12-year-old) car-sharing program, serving 800 locations with more than 30,000 members (www.mobility.ch). Portland (www.carsharing-pdx.com), Seattle (www.flexcar.com), and Cambridge, Massachusetts (www.zipcar.com), already have car-sharing programs in place. Other car-sharing programs have been launched in France, Japan, Scotland, Italy, Singapore, and such Canadian cities as Qu*bec, Montr*al, Vancouver, andToronto.

SMART TRANSIT:
With so many people having Personal Digital Assistants and cell phones, "Smart Transit" is a more efficient, high-tech version of an airport shuttle-van. Instead of planning a trip a day or more in advance, Smart Transit travelers could reserve private transportation in minutes through their computer, phone, or PDA.

DEEP CAPTION:
Accessories, such as picture frames and a removable glove compartment that doubles as a backpack, were created as "snap-ons" to be added and removed at the owner's discretion. Frogdesign also looked at different ways digital technology could be used in the Think Neighbor. Some features they proposed, but which have not yet been implemented, include: a digital horn where you canrecord your own messages, Web radio, and Internet text-to-voice messaging where e-mails can be turned into voice messages for the driver to listen to during a drive. The friend finder uses Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology to tell you where other drivers are and how to get to them.