Trampe bicycle lift
Location:	Trondheim Trondheim Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of... , Norway Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
Built:	1993
Builder:	Design Management AS
Gradient Slope In mathematics, the slope or gradient of a line describes its steepness, incline, or grade. A higher slope value indicates a steeper incline.... :	20% (1:5)
Length:	130m
Speed:	2m/s Metre per second Metre per second is an SI derived unit of both speed and velocity , defined by distance in metres divided by time in seconds....  (7.4km/h)
Propulsion:	Electric Electric motor An electric motor converts electrical energy into mechanical energy.Most electric motors operate through the interaction of magnetic fields and current-carrying conductors to generate force...

The Trampe bicycle lift is the first, and currently only, bicycle

Bicycle

A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....

 lift

Elevator

An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...

 in the world. The prototype was built in 1993 in Trondheim

Trondheim

Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...

, and it is still in service as of 2005. Trampe is a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 verb meaning "to stomp".

Usage

To use the Trampe, a keycard

Key (lock)

A key is an instrument that is used to operate a lock. A typical key consists of two parts: the blade, which slides into the keyway of the lock and distinguishes between different keys, and the bow, which is left protruding so that torque can be applied by the user. The blade is usually intended to...

 (see picture) has to be bought or rented. Buying and renting keycards both costs 100 kroner

Norwegian krone

The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...

, but the fee is refunded when renting.

When using the lift, the right foot is placed on the starting point (the left foot stays on the bicycle pedal

Pedal

The word pedal comes from the Latin and relates to the foot.A pedal is a lever activated by one's foot. The term "foot pedal" is redundant, and should be avoided...

), the keycard is inserted in the card reader and one pushes the start button. After a few seconds, the user is pushed forward and a footplate emerges. A common mistake among tourists and other first-time users is that they don't keep their right leg outstretched and their body tilted forward. This makes it hard to maintain balance on the footplate, and can result in falling off.

In the summer months, the Trampe is used extensively by both commuting

Bicycle commuting

Bicycle commuting is the use of a bicycle to travel from home to a place of work or study — in contrast to the use of a bicycle for sport, recreation or touring....

inhabitants of Trondheim and tourists with rented keycards.

Teenagers sometimes ride (balance on) the footplate without a bicycle, for fun.

External links

• Official website
• Trampe - The bicycle lift at Trondheim.com
• Video of the lift in operation on YouTube