Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde imagines a smog-clearing bike as a solution to China’s dual problems of road congestion and poor air quality—and a way to keep cyclists from inhaling excess pollution.
Riding a bike in a smoggy city–and sucking in exhaust from the tailpipes of the cars in front of you–can undo the benefits of exercise. In Beijing, artist Daan Roosegaarde is beginning to imagine one potential solution: a bike that could pull in dirty air, filter it, and release clean air.The concept is one part of Roosegaarde’s larger Smog Free Project. At TED 2017, Roosegaarde, who works in both the Netherlands and China, outlined the project so far, including a seven-meter-tall tower designed to sit in parks or playgrounds and purify surrounding air. Roosegaarde has also turned the black soot from Beijing air into smog jewelry. In theory, the new bikes will work in a similar way to the tower.
“We’ll be morphing to the bicycle–making it smaller and more energy-friendly or energy-neutral,” Roosegaarde tells Fast Company. “But it would give clean air to the person who cycles. Beijing was a cycling city 10 years ago, and then everyone wanted a car. If we can use this design to bring back the prestige of the bicycle, that would really create an impact on pollution in the short term, a 10- to 14-month scale.”
He envisions that the design, which is still in development, could be added to China’s rapidly growing network of bike shares. At least half a million shared bikes are now in use in Beijing. One bike-share company alone, Mobike, has more than 10 million users in 21 cities. “If we can update those bikes with this kind of thing, then you can create an impact on the average pollution, and then it becomes fascinating,”
The bikes will likely become part of a program–that includes the Smog Free Towers and other yet-to-be-designed smog-sucking technology–that the designer is pitching to polluted cities as a way to temporarily purify pockets of air while cities work on larger reforms.
“It will always be connected with big programs of government and green technology and electric cars,” Roosegaarde says. “They do top-down, we do bottom-up, and we meet in the middle.”
荷兰艺术家Daan Roosegaarde构思出一种雾霾净化自行车，一箭三雕地解决中国交通拥堵和空气污染的问题以及防止骑行者吸入废气。
在一个雾霾严重的城市骑车，吸入前面车辆排放地汽车尾气会抵消掉锻炼的好处。在北京时，Daan Roosegaarde就开始设想一个方案：一辆可以吸入废气，净化然后释放出干净空气的自行车。这一构思正是2017TED演讲中无霾计划中的一部分想法。Roosegaarde同时在荷兰与中国工作，目前已经列出了该项目的大纲，包括一个高达7米的塔用于安装在停车场以净化周围空气。 Roosegaarde 已经成功地将北京空气中的黑色烟尘变成了雾霾宝石。理论上，空气净化自行车的工作方式与塔类似。
Roosegaarde 说到他们正致力于将这款自行车改造得更轻巧，更节能。但是它仍能为骑行者提供干净的空气。北京在十年前也是座自行车当道的城市，但之后人们纷纷追求汽车。如果我们能运用这项设计让自行车重现辉煌，那么这真的会对10到14个月短期治污会有明显的效果。
Roosegaarde says.他设想的这款自行车正在改进中，很有可能会被日益兴旺的共享单车采纳。至少北京现在有50万辆投入使用的共享单车。比如单就摩拜公司而言，它就拥有来自21座城市的超1000万的用户。Roosegaarde 说如果我们能用这项设计更新共享单车，那么这对治污的效果将会令人惊讶不已。
这款单车会是无霾计划中的一部分，该项目还包括无霾塔和构思中的吸霾科技，即设计者打算投入到空气污染严重的城市暂缓空气污染，给城市改革缓冲时间的科技。
Roosegaarde 说，“这款单车会与政府的项目，绿色科技以及电动汽车紧密相连，他们至顶向下，我们至下向上，在中间达成目标。”