Transportation

Bamboo Bikes

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

Bike riding is great for your health, the environment, and all sorts of wonderful adventures. I’m sure there are lots of adventures to be had when riding a bamboo bike!

Flavio Deslandes is the man behind the development of a bicycle made of bamboo. He is Brazilian and he is an industrial designer from the PUC-Rio University. I met him in his small workshop next to The Smithy.

– The bicycle is one of the worlds most brilliant inventions. It is hard to find a disadvantage (to the bicycle) – except the material it is made from. Light bicycles are made from aluminum, which is one of the most resource demanding materials that exist. My bicycles are made of grass, he says.

But Flavio makes me see things differently: Bamboo is a resource of immense potential. And it is strong too. What makes it possible to build bicycles from it is that it is stronger than steel when strained in the longitudinal direction, 17% to be exact.

Honda F1 Team Goes Green

- mattclare 1 Comment

Honda F1Honda’s F1 team has announced it’s 2007 driver line-up: Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello & Mother Earth.

The team’s 2007 Formula One race car, named the RA107, will feature no commercial logos at all, replacing the former Tobacco sponsorship with a giant image of the Earth.

By using planet earth as the car’s livery Honda hopes to raise awareness about climate change in the world’s second most viewed sport (150+ million viewers for each race) and welcome the proposed 2009 addition of devices for energy recovery to all F1 cars.

By passing on messages about simple tips for reducing CO2 output and making carbon positive changes to the team’s factory Honda hopes to raise their image a manufacturer of sporty low emissions vehicles.

The Honda F1 Team’s press release has more details.

Fuel Economy Top Priority for European Drivers

- Adam Clare

Not surprisingly, Europeans are still concerned about fuel consumption in their autos. This evidence comes from the the Harris Interactive AutoTECHCAST Europe poll, and just like this year, Europeans chose fuel economy as their biggest concern last year.

Spanish adults show the highest likelihood of choosing enhanced-fuel economy as the top automotive technology that they are very or extremely likely to purchase for their next new vehicle (63%), followed by Italian and German respondents (45% and 36% respectively).

No passport? No problem!

- Agasel 1 Comment

To any of you who waited in line, for hours, hoping to get your passport in time for the air travel restrictions: maybe you wasted your time. Maybe you could have picked a place that did not require much more than your picture identification.

You could have gone to the following tourist hot spots, places so relaxed about life that it’s almost a sure bet that people in these countries never line up for hours, empty coffee cup in hand, wanting to go to the bathroom but afraid to lose your spot.

Maybe next time you will listen to the media reports. Maybe you got your passport in time, and will congratulate yourself for all the hard work you did lining up, and get some hard-earned relaxation done.

Bizzarre Looking Concept Car

- Adam Clare

The Peugeot Dauphin is a concept car that looks really odd and serves of testbed for future electric vehicles. It’s the craziest tricycle you’ll ever see (pictures located at the above link, sorry in a rush with no time to attach an image).

“It’s no slouch when it comes to performance, either. Pushing the techno-tryke up to 90 mph are electric motors embedded in each rear wheel, and once you get home, you charge the vehicle up again by simply parking it over the Peugeot Dock/Recharging station. It’s all so effortless — your only problem will be convincing your neighbors that it’s not a U”

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