History of the bicycle: when was it invented?

From the past to the future. In the year that the Giro d’Italia celebrates its 100th edition, the bicycle is celebrating 200 years of history. A story that began on 5 April 1817, when Baron Karl Drais publicly presents Draisine, made of wood and iron, with two aligned wheels, of which only the front one could steer, but had no pedals or brakes. Electric bicycles can be considered the next evolution of the history of the bicycle. They presently reach a speed that was unthinkable a few years ago, up to 45 kilometres an hour, much higher than the limit set by the 2004 European Directive, which imposed a maximum speed of 25 kilometres per hour on streets. What about electric cars? Precisely last year a new world record was set for acceleration from standstill: from 0 to 100 km per hour in 1.513 seconds. However, the model that achieved this performance is not manufactured on a large scale, being only a prototype developed by the Amz Club, a group of thirty students from two Swiss universities, Zurich ETH and Lucerne Sciences University. Enel is committed to a zero-emission future, and is set on turning the Italian motorways ‘electric’ in a few years. The Eva+ project will allow electric cars to travel from Italy to Austria on motorway, thanks to the first fast recharge integrated system. Not only Enel is involved, but also big car manufacturers such as Renault, Nissan, BMW and Volskwagen Italy.