Emergency Bikes are the new French idea of ambulance
It’s fast, super-tech and, above all, it’s traffic-proof. It is an e-bike designed specifically for doctors that allow them to arrive promptly on the places where their help is required. They are designed for large cities where, due to city traffic, classic four-wheeled ambulances often have problems in getting on time to the patient. And we know that in some cases a few minutes make the difference between life and death.
It was invented by the French company Ecox Enterprises in collaboration with Wunderman Thompson. The first one deals with eco-friendly mobility, while the second is a technology consulting company. Cargo bicycle manufacturer Urban Arrow and Ump (Urgences Medicales de Paris), the group of first aid workers of Paris, also contributed to its creation.
This pedal assisted bicycle is equipped with a 150-liter trunk that allows you to carry all the medical supplies necessary for a first aid. It is also equipped with GPS, flashing lights, a 140 decibel siren and colored panels inserted inside the wheels to increase visibility in traffic.
The creative director of Wunderman Thompson Paris, Adrien Mancel, says he is very satisfied with this new invention. He said: “We are excited to celebrate the launch of emergency bikes in the streets of paris and help optimize urban medical interventions. Emergency Bikes are fast. They slide easily through heavy traffic, they park in limited spaces, and most importantly, they enable doctors to cross Paris with their medical material faster than any other vehicle, reaching every medical intervention site two times faster, on average”. He then added: “our hope is to develop a project where Emergency Bikes can be used in several emergency services across other cities and countries”.
The purpose of the e-bike is not to completely replace the traditional ambulance. Suffice is to think that the transport of a patient would be impossible on a two-wheeled vehicle. The idea, however, is to provide a solution for those very specific cases, such as a patient having a heart attack, in which a delay of the rescue vehicle would put the patient’s life at risk. Mancel says: “It’s estimated that every minute lost stuck in traffic reduces the patient’s survival chances by 10%, so cutting off just few minutes makes a big difference. In these conditions, the reaction time of doctors in the city is crucial”.
Basically, the doctor arrives on the first aid scene on the e-bike and he stabilizes the patient. Then he waits for the traditional ambulance that will arrive in its own time and, if necessary, it will transport the patient to the hospital.
