Anti-roll brake for pushchairs/pram

[jjl5590]

Hello!

I'm a third year engineering student and I'm doing a dissertation on the design & development of an aftermarket anti-roll brake for pushchairs/prams. The aim is to design a £10-15 accessory that can be attached and offer an auto-brake function, whereby when you take your hands off the pushchair handle, it automatically brakes. Similar to the Phil&Teds system but obviously much cheaper.

I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts about it? I've come up with some questions :) Feel free to answer some, all, or none at all!

I have attached a couple of pictures to help assist.

• Do you own a pram/pushchair?

- How much did it cost? - Does it have an anti-roll brake feature? - How much woud you pay for a pushchair?

• Do you think an anti-roll brake feature would be useful?

- How much would you pay for it? - Would you pay upwards of £450 to have an anti-roll brake pre-installed?

• How easy/reliable is your pushchair's current braking system? Any problems?

• Would you feel comfortable installing an anti-roll brake on the pushchair yourself if it was simple enough?

• Would you be more influenced to buy an anti-roll brake if it were made of metal or lightweight plastic?

• Would you be more likely to purchase an anti-roll brake if it was an attractive colour or decorative in some way?

Sounds like an interesting project. You may get more responses if you use a survey site as it is quicker possibly. Best of luck with it.

Answers-

• Do you own a pram/pushchair? Yes

- How much did it cost? £700 for the travel system/newborn pram etc, second toddler pram was about £200. - Does it have an anti-roll brake feature? No - How much woud you pay for a pushchair? Around £700/800 at most.

• Do you think an anti-roll brake feature would be useful? Yes. I haven't had need for one yet with only one child, but with two children, I can see a huge reason for it if one is walking and you are pushing the other in the pram and you suddenly need to catch/stop the walking child.

- How much would you pay for it? £30-40 if separate to pram. - Would you pay upwards of £450 to have an anti-roll brake pre-installed? Presuming this is for the pram as well. Yes.

• How easy/reliable is your pushchair's current braking system? Any problems? It works and feels secure but we had issues that had to be fixed when we first used it. Simple to use.

• Would you feel comfortable installing an anti-roll brake on the pushchair yourself if it was simple enough? No, I would take it to a shop to have it fitted for peace of mind.

• Would you be more influenced to buy an anti-roll brake if it were made of metal or lightweight plastic? Neither, as long as it is reliable either is fine.

• Would you be more likely to purchase an anti-roll brake if it was an attractive colour or decorative in some way? No.

This sounds like a really good project and something that should definitely be explored more.

• Do you own a pram/pushchair? Not yet, looking at the moment.
• How much did it cost? Looking at between £250-£500 for something that meets the needs
• Does it have an anti-roll brake feature? 2 shortlisted don't but considering the Phil and Ted Navigator as a third option simply because of the brake but not quite as leightweight as I would like
• How much woud you pay for a pushchair? Up to £600 if it has everything

• Do you think an anti-roll brake feature would be useful? Extremely. I have epilepsy and am concerned about being out and having a seizure and potential losing control of the pushchair
• How much would you pay for it? £30-£40 potentially more if something more sophisticated. Britax have an ebrake pushchair available only in Australia at the moment and this includes pedometer and more, something like that would consider paying more for it.
• Would you pay upwards of £450 to have an anti-roll brake pre-installed? If this includes pushchair, yes

• How easy/reliable is your pushchair's current braking system? Any problems? Not appicable, don't have a pushchair yet and this will be my first child

• Would you feel comfortable installing an anti-roll brake on the pushchair yourself if it was simple enough? Yes

• Would you be more influenced to buy an anti-roll brake if it were made of metal or lightweight plastic? Material doesn't matter as long as it is effective and ideally not too bulky

• Would you be more likely to purchase an anti-roll brake if it was an attractive colour or decorative in some way? No as practicalities would outweigh the look, but if it can look nice too, great!

If you have any other questions happy to answer, or if you get to the point of wanting someone to test the brake just let me know. Will be interested to hear how it goes. Good luck.

Janewills - if it seizures you're worried about you could try a wrist strap. I have the buggy tug and it's brill.

Thanks for the great responses!

Any other opinions?