Micro Cars

There are small cars and then there are micro cars. Not so easy to find in Ontario. You would have better luck in Europe and Asia than North America. Some of the cars have only 3 wheels. One of my favourites is the BMW Isetta. It opens from the front, where the engine hood would be in most cars, the front door is to enter the car with the Isetta. I’ve seen a couple of others which are the same.

I’d like to drive one. Not for long trips but nice for a road trip, a day trip. A simple vehicle for simple jaunts to get groceries and all those little around town, or city, things.

Micro North – Located in Coldwater, Ontario.

Traffic Calming Measures and the Driver-less Cars for the Future

Other than direct police enforcement, I feel all traffic calming measures are unsuccessful.

People choose to speed, go through stop signs and red lights regardless of posted speed limits, etc. Speed bumps and such cause damage to local cars, over time. Roundabouts and those sticks in the middle of the road are more likely to cause stress to drivers, which could threaten safety for cards and pedestrians. I do not support any of these and I live on a street with several schools, churches and traffic.

I myself have been hit while going through a pedestrian crosswalk where one car chose not to stop, though others already had. I have seen a pedestrian hit at the crosswalk in front of the Zehrs grocery store, in the parking lot. I have seen a pedestrian hit crossing at the stop sign (not jaywalking). People, drivers, have cell phone brains and do not either care or pay attention. There is no real deterrent to bad or careless driving. Pedestrians and bike riders are not better, just more at risk for their own carelessness.

I don’t have a solution to offer. But, I have seen the traffic calming solutions not working at all. Drivers still speed, far beyond the posted speed limits. But speed is not the only issue causing accidents. Traffic calming seems to be something the city can say they are doing to help shut up the people complaining. Ironic, that those same people are also speeding and ignoring driver and pedestrian safety.

I think the driver-less cars will be the best thing to come along for road safety. Whenever they become commonplace.

For Sale in Montreal, a Purple Smartie Car

I know it’s not intended to look like a purple Smartie (candy in Canada) but it does. Pretty fancy and almost a million dollars to buy this Lamborghini. If you were homeless with this car you would need to get a storage until to park it in and live in yourself. It would be a shame to live in the car itself and have it looking worn and messy. This is what I thought of after thinking of having this car myself.

A Smog-Eating Bike May Soon Cruise Beijing’s Streets

Smog Free Bicycle (courtesy Studio Roosegaarde) — The Smog Free Bicycle concept (courtesy Studio Roosegaarde)

A smog-eating bike may soon be cruising through the Beijing streets. Last month the Dutch design firm Studio Roosegaarde announced that it is partnering with Ofo, a Chinese bike sharing program, to develop the Smog Free Bicycle. Daan Roosegaarde, who leads the studio, stated: “Beijing used to be an iconic bicycle city. We want to bring back the bicycle as a cultural icon of China and as the next step towards smog free cities.”

Beijing has an air pollution crisis, and the bike proposal joins other environmental initiatives like a Chinese government-led mass tree planting. According to the release from Studio Roosegaarde, details about the Smog Free Bicycle’s implementation will be released this fall. Roosegaarde was inspired by a recent workshop at the M Woods museum in Beijing. It featured artist Matt Hope, who previously created a “Breathing Bike,” a much more DIY contraption with an air cleaning system involving an IKEA trash can and fighter-pilot mask.

The Smog Free Bicycle is the latest from Roosegaarde’s ongoing Smog Free Project. It follows the installation of a Smog Free Tower in Rotterdam in 2015, reported for Hyperallergic by Claire Voon, that was billed as the “largest smog vacuum cleaner in the world.” Using positive ionization to pull particulate matter from the air, these particles are then compressed into cubes for jewelry. In 2016, another Smog Free Tower was installed in Beijing.

The bicycle would potentially use a similar technology to inhale pollution, then release the cleaned air around the rider. Yet bike sharing programs in China have faced their own hurdles. The Guardian reported in January that hundreds of cycles-for-hire were being abandoned by riders in huge piles around Shenzhen.

Other recent designs such as the CityTree by the Berlin-based Green City Solutions that has a wall of air-cleaning moss for concrete-heavy urban zones, and Air Ink by Graviky Labs in India that transforms smog into inks, similarly are aimed at small-scale interventions that could influence larger thinking on greener cities. Perhaps it’s better to view projects like the Smog Free Bicycle as statements rather than solutions. Bikes are, by their peddle-powered nature, smog free, and the social impact design may be successful in encouraging more people to ride.

Smog at the Forbidden City in Beijing (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

Source: A Smog-Eating Bike May Soon Cruise Beijing’s Streets

Unicycling

Today LilFunky, my current blog tenant, is writing about unicycling.

Have you ever seen anyone on a unicycle outside of a magician or circus performer? I have. When I lived in the Rouge one of the older boys on our street had a unicycle. I thought it was amazing. Any time I noticed him out there I would be watching from the front steps, driveway or the big window in the dining room of our house. He almost never fell off. I guess he practiced somewhere other than the street before he took it on the road.

I was riding a bike at the time. My brother and I went off on grand adventures in an abandoned golf course that used to be near our area. (Now it’s all new houses). Still, there was something different about the unicycle. It wasn’t about keeping balance it was about having nothing to do with your hands and the whole lack of steering mechanisms. He would steer by kind of twisting his body and giving a little hop. But, the most interesting thing was to watch his hands and arms. There really was not much to do once you had your balance. I think he could have read a book or played video games just to give his hands something to do.

There is a Toronto Unicycling group. Maybe you have one in your area should you be inspired to unicycle.