Two Cycling Innovations for Greener Cities

July 8th, 2009, 3 Comments »

I recently read about a couple of interesting bike-related innovations. The first, via Mark Evans, is Bixi Bicycles. They’re a Montreal-based commuting bike rental service, kind of ZipCar for bicycles. They’ve papered downtown Montreal with stations where, using a key system, you can take and return bikes. It costs $78 for a yearly subscription, with trips under 30 minutes free. Longer trips start at $1.50 for the first hour, and increase from there. It’s a service I would have considered using for local trips when we lived in Vancouver.

For longer, sweatier commutes, I read about the Green Pod on Springwise:

About the size of a parking space for one car, the Green Pod comes in two configurations: one with a single shower and changing room along with 10 lockers and parking for as many bicycles, and the other with double those facilities. The pod features a solar hot water system, electronic locking system, LED lighting activated by motion sensors, timed showers and a grey water treatment unit that discharges grey water into green areas. The unit can be integrated into indoor or outdoor applications, and it operates on a 12V DC system that can be powered by solar panels on the roof. Also part of the pod is a self-cleaning mechanism that can detect when no one’s inside and lock its doors for some self-cleaning, according to a report in Catapult. Access is via swipe card for registered users.

It’s developed by an Australian company, and definitely looks designed for warmer countries. Hopefully they’ll design something that’s a little less gappy for us Canadians.

Photo by TMAB2003.

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A Cogent Explanation of the US Electoral Process

April 13th, 2008, 1 Comment »

From an Australian version of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, here’s an amusing take on how Americans choose their presidential nominees:

The female satirist is working really hard to maintain that twangy American accent. But she pulls it off.

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Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs…

March 5th, 2007, 7 Comments »

There’s a lot of talk, these days, about compact fluorescent lights. Australia, for example, has taken the impressive step of banning traditional incandescent light bulbs. In three year’s time, you won’t be able to buy them in shops across the country.

Today I happened upon Lighter Footstep’s big guide to CFLs, and learned a bunch of stuff:

Speaking of efficiency, modern CFLs have almost immediate startup time. That means that when you flip the switch, there’s very little lag before the bulb turns on. But to achieve the sort of power efficiencies advertised on their packaging, CFLs must warm up to their operational temperature. This takes anywhere from 30 seconds to three minutes. During this period, they’re not much more power-stingy than incandescent bulbs.

One way in which CFLs have improved is the tone of the light they can produce. I used to really dislike them, because the light was far too white, and quite close to traditional flourescent lights. They seem to have made some progress on achieving a warming, yellowed light.

Of course, most sci-fi films portray the future as cold and white, so I might just have to get used to it.

UPDATE: Here’s a great video my friends made on the benefits of switching to CFLs:

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play

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