Trends in Alt Transportation
In this episode for trendwatchers, Nora Young talks about the booming business in high end and also custom bikes, like these gorgeous ones at Core77. Nora’s torn: she loves them, but does everything we do have to come with a shopping experience?
Meanwhile, Cathi Bond has been obsessed with variations on monorails for ages. She’s just found this cool spin on it: String Transport Systems. (via Gizmag) Now, can anyone explain how it works?
Tags: bicycles, monorails, sustainability, transportation
July 5th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
I remember when I bought my first “nice” bike in the 1980s. The bike cost
180 dollars, only roughly twice to two and one half times what an ordinary bike cost. Now the ratio is out of all imaginings. I’ll concede that a higher-end bike has a far better ride. I’ll admit that I would pay a premium to have my bike made in a shop that pays a living wage rather than a sweatshop. Yet I agree with Nora entirely that the whole bike pricing thing has turned into one more shopping opportunity. I am at a point now in which I aim to get a new street bike. This concern makes me want to find it at a yard sale rather than a bike shop.
The technical FAQ for the rail line was pretty easy to follow over at the site in the link. I theorize this is like the hydrogen engine–something that would work with a massive re-commitment of the infrastructure required to set up this network. I like this idea’s way of pitching itself as an alternative to a central grid, but I am not sure it gets by the pipe dream test.