Easy Bikes
Hey everybody, Its David Castillo from Renegade filling in for Drew while he is on vacation. So lets get to some MFG action. My post du jour comes from the green sector again, this time its bicycle vending machines. The folks at Treehugger posted about this beautiful new system that could help cities become greener and healthier. This is what they had to say,
“Dutch design agency Springtime scooped up a Spark Design & Architecture Award this year for a concept that promotes efficiency in eco-friendly transport. Bike Dispenser units would ideally be placed in cities where bike rental/free bike exchange programs are promoted, allowing easy one-way journeys and convenient pick-up/drop-off locations in various neighborhoods, while also keeping everyone’s costs down. Riders pay a small fee to rent the bikes which are outfitted with RFID chips to track and log journeys. The nitty gritty of return conditions, repairs, and theft, aren’t clearly addressed, but it’s just in concept mode for now, after all.”
Even though all the rules aren’t worked out completely, this idea could be applied in so many other contexts beyond city use as well. For example, I could see a network of these also being useful for a university with a large campus. All the time at my alma mater kids used to drive from one side of campus to the other, it was ridiculous. Yet they didn’t really have too much of an alternative unless they walked. Yet if they had a convenient one-way bike system like this one, I bet it would *inspire* more than a few to change their habits.