How to Downsize a Transport Network: The Chinese Wheelbarrow
i’m trying not to post every single article off this website but this one is too good… these seem super cool and easy to build (and, if we’re being honest, #aesthetic)
i feel like people in rural armenia would immediately find uses for them given how badly the road system has gone to shit (there’s roads you can’t even tell were paved 20 years ago) and the prevalence of cars for short-distance transport
for instance, a common problem here is that disabled and elderly people can’t get around their villages easily. if you can’t walk, you have to ride in a car, because even if you had a wheelchair (which most don’t) it might be difficult or impossible to use on the rocky, pothole-filled village roads. a chinese wheelbarrow could get people to school, church, etc. with no problem
Yo if you are scouring history for low-tech adaptations to shitty road conditions might I suggest the King (“split-log”) Road Drag - it’s an absurdly simple and effective regrading tool for loose-surfaced roads (i.e. dirt and gravel, maybe not potholed pavement), it can be built by hand tools from scrap wood and towed by consumer car (so no issues like “where will you source or manufacture an appropriately-dimensioned tire”).
Invented in America at the turn of the 20th century but mostly overlooked as it came after authorities started to pave roads.