3 minute read
Air-cleaning bicycles
The air around us is becoming dirtier, especially in the world’s larger cities. At the same time we have to deal with massive traffic congestion. Dutch entrepreneurs want to collaborate with governments, students and companies to make a smog free city and get people out their cars and use greener forms of transportation.
Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde is one of those entrepreneurs. He designed a bicycle that sucks in polluted air, cleans it, before pushing it back out into the atmosphere. He collaborated with Chinese bike sharing program ‘Ofo’ to realise his idea.
How it works
This ‘smog-sucking’ bike is a straightforward concept. As you pedal the bike, it sucks in the dirty air, cleans it and thrusts the air back out. It creates a pocket of clean air in front of the cyclist to cycle into. The aim is to encourage people to use their cars less and cycle more.
“Bikes have always been a symbol of energy-friendly and congestion-reducing living, but this bike serves a double function by cleaning the air as you cycle,” says Roosegaarde. “For me, design has never been about creating yet another chair or another table. We should use creativity to improve the way we live.”
It is obviously not a cure for all pollution problems, but it’s a small step in the right direction. The idea has been around for a few years, but had legs (or wheels) until now. Leave it to the creative juices of Studio Roosegaarde to make it a reality.
Smog Free Project
The air-cleaning bike is part of Roosegaarde’s Smog Free Project. The Chinese central government supports this project that also consists of the Smog Free Tower. The building is the largest outdoor vacuum cleaner in the world. The smog caught by this contraption, is made into jewelry. A series inspired by Roosegaarde’s tower is currently implemented by a Chinese partner organization in various cities in China.
The bicycles will work in a similar way to the Smog Free Tower and provides a healthy and energy-friendly solution to combat traffic congestion and pollution issues. “We want to use the bicycle as a cultural icon of China and as the next step towards smog free cities”, says Daan Roosegaarde.
