Since 2008, Kolkata has banned bicycling on prominent roads, which today make up most of the city center. This is “with a view to provide safe and uninterrupted flow of vehicular traffic,” says the Police Commissioner. But for cyclists in the only Indian metro that uses more cycles than cars, this seems ridiculous.
In contrast, in 2010, business leaders and traffic engineers from San Francisco travelled to Dutch cities to study ways of promoting cycling in the United States. Almost 60% of all urban trips in the Netherlands are made on cycles.
Are we entirely missing the point? Not really. While banning cycling may be an isolated incident, many factors deter those willing to try it, like safety. But solutions are at hand.
Having met with an accident during high school, I share that fear, as does Anirudha Surabhi, designer of the Kranium Cardboard Helmet. During his accident, the impact cracked his helmet and this motivated him to design a better helmet – one inspired by the woodpecker’s unique anatomy, which allows for constant high-speed head banging without any brain damage.
The Invisible Helmet or Hovding is an airbag helmet designed for those who don’t want to lug heavy headgear around, ruin their hair or look hideous. You can wear it around your neck, quite like a fashionable scarf. If there is an impact in the form of a crash, the Hovding inflates in an instant into a helmet around the cyclist’s head and neck.
While helmets cater to wearable gear for a cyclist, designers of Aura Bicycles believe in making the cycle visible to motorists for safety, especially at night. They propose to use RGB LEDs inside the rim of the wheel, indicating riding speed by changing the LED colour.
Safety is not the only hindrance for cycling in urban India – there is a need for parking infrastructure, dedicated tracks and high-speed routes for cyclists. While companies like Intel, Microsoft, Mindtree and others in Bengaluru promote cycling by providing showers, parking spaces and cycling clubs, a shift in attitude is required on busy roads populated with aggressive and insensitive motorists.
While everyone thinks they own the road, who actually does?
Maybe cyclists deserve to be uplifted entirely from the traffic below, like on the circular cycle bridge, designed by ipv Delft in Eindhoven (Netherlands).
Perhaps a fundamental shift in perception would help kick-start a revolution. What if cycling became cool, just like owning an iPhone? What if every teenager thought it was a style statement to own a bicycle, with hip gear like the Copenhagen Wheel, which allows you to unlock your bike, change gears and recycle your pedalling energy for your smart phone? Or maybe we could start young and include cycling lessons in school with the argument for using bamboo cycles like Bambike in times of ever-increasing petrol prices and choking pollution.
Perhaps the erstwhile Oil Minister Veerappa Moily’s Petroleum Conservation Research Association would not have to spend `40 crore rupees for an awareness campaign, as they did in 2013, to reduce dependence on oil imports. The health, environmental, economic and community benefits of cycling are obvious; it just need design to strategically make it cool!
HÖVDING > Malmö, Sweden > 2005-present
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Designers: Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin
The collar is made of waterproof functional fabric that provides the best possible protection for the built-in airbag system. Upon impact, Hövding inflates and protects nearly the entire head, leaving the field of vision open. The airbag is made of an ultra-strong nylon fabric that won’t rip when scraped against the ground. The pressure remains constant for several seconds, making it strong enough to withstand multiple head impacts during the same accident.
During development, thousands of cycling accidents were re-enacted using stunt riders and crash-test dummies to collect the specific movement patterns of cyclists in accidents. Based on this collected data, we developed an algorithm that can distinguish normal cycling from accidents, which triggers the airbag to inflate, expecting a fall.
After seven years in development, Hövding, the attention-grabbing and award-winning invisible cycle helmet, is now for sale across Europe.
Additional info: http://www.hovding.com/
KRANIUM HELMET > London, UK > 2012 - present
Designer: Anirudha Surabhi
The Kranium helmet is inspired by the crumple zones in the woodpecker’s beak, and its liner uses paper to create similar structures to mimic the impact absorption. It is made of a dual density honey comb board filled with air to act as individual airbags during impact.
The result is a protective liner which absorbs three times the amount of impact and is at the same time 15% lighter than typical cycling helmets. It is made from recycled materials and can stand up to the elements, as it has been treated to be sweat and rain proof. The design is topped off with a waterproof acrylic compound that prevents the cardboard shell from getting wet.
The helmet liner technology is now patented and licensed to some of the biggest brands in the industry.
Additional info: http://www.kraniums.com/
PROJECT AURA > Pittsburg, USA > 2010 - present
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PROJECT AURA | |
photographs: THE DESIGNERS | |
Designers: Jonathan Ota and Ethan Frier
36% of bicycle accidents happen at intersections, and in an urban environment side visibility is critical to your safety as a cyclist. By illuminating the wheels, drivers are immediately aware that a bicycle on the road is in fact a bicycle, with no ambiguity about it. We want to reduce car to bike accidents by better informing drivers about the rider’s behaviour, and bringing riders to the attention of drivers in an unobtrusive and beautiful manner.
Slower bicycles on the road are more vulnerable. Aura knows this and illuminates red when you are riding slowly, indicating to drivers to be more cautious. When you accelerate to cruising speed, Aura speeds up too, smoothly transitioning back to white. When you start riding Aura checks to see if it is dark out, and will turn itself on for you. When you are done riding it goes ahead and turns itself off too.
Project Aura is more than just a beautiful bicycle light; it is a platform for drivers to better understand bicyclists.
Additional info: http://www.aurabicycles.com/
COPENHAGEN WHEEL > Boston Area, USA > 2009 - present
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COPENHAGEN WHEEL | |
Designers: MIT Senseable City Lab
Smart, responsive and elegant, the Copenhagen Wheel is a new emblem for urban mobility. It transforms ordinary bicycles quickly into hybrid e-bikes that also function as mobile sensing units.
The Copenhagen Wheel allows you to capture the energy dissipated while cycling and braking and save it for when you need a bit of a boost. It also maps pollution levels, traffic congestion and road conditions in real-time.
Controlled through your smart phone, the Copenhagen Wheel becomes a natural extension of your everyday life. You can use your phone to unlock and lock your bike, change gears and select how much the motor assists you.
“Bicycles are very efficient machines. Rather than reinventing them, we’re introducing a simple technological enhancement that allows any bike to become a smart and responsive hybrid.” – Assaf Biderman,Associate Director, MIT Senseable City Lab.
Additional info: http://senseable.mit.edu/copenhagenwheel/
BAMBIKE>Bengaluru, India > 2009 – present
Designer: Vijay Sharma
Designer: Vijay Sharma
The Bambike is an environmentally friendly bike as it uses bamboo in place of steel for the main frame of the cycle. With each such bamboo bike one is cutting down the consumption of steel by 3.5 kg. The bike has passed the Japanese industrial standard test and has now various models for hybrid and mountain biking.
Additional info: http://handcraftedbikes.blogspot.com/
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