Comments on: Bike Powered Bus Rides!

By: Et si les bus roulaient au vélo ?

Et si les bus roulaient au vélo ? — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:31:33 +0000

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By: Deenox

Deenox — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:37:25 +0000

Your suggestion is really good. Thank you.

By: Florent Durrey

Florent Durrey — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:31:42 +0000

Hi Nicolas,
I fully agree with your points. The values however are quite different:
- The amount of oil needed to produce 1kg of food is very variable. From almost 0 (locally-grown, seasonnal organic vegetables & cereals) to about 10, for which you are quite right (any red meat: especially veal from Argentina or lamb from New Zealand !)
- Human efficiency (from food to muscle power) is not that bad: nature made animals quite efficient in fact (about 20 to 30% if used properly. A bike is probably one of the best ways in fact, the rowing machine being the best existing to my knowledge)
- Electricity production from any kind of engine is lower than that: no greater than 25 to 30% (without counting the distribution of the electricity)
However, as I said, I agree with you: there is too many sources of loss in the system proposed for it to be efficient. Furthermore, as I expressed in another comment, the orders of magnitude are so much completely different that it seems quite pointless to me… (what about asking everyone to take a spoon and start emptying the ocean?)

By: Nicolas

Nicolas — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 09:44:38 +0000

Hi,
It seems that you need 5 to 10kg of oil to produce 1kg of food, and that the human eficiency is below 5%.

So:
electricity production through human body: total eficiency < 1%
electricity production through a diesel engine: total efficiency = 45%

On an ecological point of view, it is much better to provide the bikes with energy than collecting from them.

By: /// Fixed Gear Switzerland » Bike powered bus rides ///

/// Fixed Gear Switzerland » Bike powered bus rides /// — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:11:21 +0000

[...] Very nice idea from designer Chiyu Chen. More details on Yanko Design [...]

By: Florent Durrey

Florent Durrey — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:19:14 +0000

I agree with Gunnar.
There is a big mistake in the magnitude!
How much does a liter of petrol cost? Say 1€ or 1£ whatever. It is only a rough calculation.
In it, there is about 10 kWh of energy. A bus would use at least 10 l per 100 km (probably more, again… roughly!)
If you reward the riders by the petrol they save, that makes it about 10 Wh per hour of riding (count it whatever way you want, that is the uppermost of what you’ll get, unless of course you ask riders to power your batteries instead of riding forward, in which case you can probably get 10 times more but that’s not the intent…)
That means you neam 1000 hours of biking to save 1 liter of petrol in your bus !
By the way, 1000 hours of biking is probably 15000 km less of car travelling on the roads. That means about 1 year of driving or 750 liters of petrols less.
Don’t you think that is more productive ?
If your idea deters only 1 single user in 1000 potential customers to use the public bike system (because its harder to push on the pedals for instance of if he thinks so) and instead, this person takes his car, then you global system has a negative impact.
Don’t you think that is worth having a look at?

By: cani

cani — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:23:07 +0000

The new Marguerite parking is a compact mechanism that offers enough parking space for numerous bikes in a limited space.
Taking a cue from nature, French designer Yoann Henry Yvon
has tossed up an innovative parking design for bikes in ever-expanding cities of the developed as well as the developing world. Featuring several rows of bike holders, resembling petals surfacing from a centerpiece, the ‘Marguerite’ bike parking rack is a compact but functional parking solution for urban areas. The petals, located on the spokes, work like holders and grip the bikes firmly.

http://www.behance.net/Gallery/MARGUERITE-bike-rack/147158

By: Official Tech News » Hybrid2 public bike concept promises to help power city buses

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:20:47 +0000

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By: Out of The Ordinary Bikes « Verde Lifestyles

Out of The Ordinary Bikes « Verde Lifestyles — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:20:43 +0000

[...] ingenious idea is a combination of a bike sharing program and public transit system. Designer Chiyu Chen has developed a transit system that encourages the use of sustainable transportation by crediting [...]

By: Bicicletas providênciam energia para onibus « bicicletada curitiba

Bicicletas providênciam energia para onibus « bicicletada curitiba — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:06:41 +0000

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