“ What Walkmans did for music, folding bicycles may be poised to do for cycling. The bikes… collapse into a bundle small enough to be carried on a bus, stowed under a desk or packed into a suitcase. They are common in Europe, Japan and China, but have been slow to catch on in this country…

‘There are times when a full-sized bike doesn’t work,’ said Eric Sundin, president of Folding Bikes West… He’s guessing that in five years, sales of folding bikes will be huge, and transit projects, such as the Monorail and Sound Transit’s light rail, may make them more attractive to commuters… Among the young and fashion-conscious, the ingenious contraptions have begun to be touted as accessories to the chic urban lifestyle. But their true path to fame and fortune may lie with commuters.

With fuel costs hovering around $2 [£1.06] a gallon, folding bikes can be an inexpensive cog in the wheel of ‘multimodal’ transportation, in which people may drive part-way to work then switch to a bike, or ride to a transit station and then take a train. Bob Lovejoy, 51, owns a British-made Brompton bike and can hardly wait for a light-rail line to open near his home so he can use his bike part-way to get to his job as a computer systems administrator. ‘It’s not what you’d want if you were going to ride 50 miles. But for going five to seven miles, or riding to a transit station, it’s perfect,’ he says. ‘You just fold it up when you get on, and unfold it when you get off.’”

Seattle Post-Intelligencer 24th January 2005