One thing that discourages people from using a bicycle as their primary mode of transportation is that it’s a little undesireable to show up to school or work sweaty. In hilly cities, riders are forced to heavily exert themselves during a typical commute, pretty much guaranteeing perspiration and discouraging bicycle use.
Jarle Wanvik, an avid bicyclist in Trondheim Norway, was able to solve this problem with his bicycle lift invention, a cable driven stepping-pad that pushes bicyclists up a steep hill that lies between Trondheim’s city center and the University. Though this prototype hasn’t been duplicated anywhere else, it’s an awfully clever hack that addresses the very real problem of encouraging human-powered urban transportation.
10 thoughts on “Bicycle Lift: Smart Urban Transportation Hack”
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I’m sorry, I’m all for human-powered transportation but that really isn’t that, is it? How fuckin pampered are we to expect that our bikeways don’t have hills in them? Should mommy come and build fucking elevators for you? Pedal that bitch up, it’ll burn some fat of your fucking ass. So what if you’re a little sweaty at work, the world is drowning in shit. Wake up people.
Erpo
What is the point of this? Are we that lazy of a society that now we have to provide help up hills for cyclists? I ride for a couple of reasons. Exercise and to save gas. What powers this thing, electricity? Kind of defeats both of the reasons we ride don’t ya think?
I guess it is working since I rarely see that my many cyclists in my town. It seems usersa are a pretty heterogenous bunch also.
I am sick of everything being considered a Hack. Nothing about this at all is a Hack.
Nothing about this is a hack. This is absolutely great mechanical engineering whoever designed it. The point is I ride for exercise and to save fuel. This defeats both of those premises of why I ride. I am lucky enough to have showers at work so sweat is not an issue. Even at jobs that I didn’t have showers a washcloth and some deodorant in the mens room sufficed for the day.