“Smog-Free Bicycle” Concept: Smog Goes in, Fresh Air Comes out
Modern smog, as a type of air pollution caused by coal fire, transportation emissions, and photochemical smog that is highly toxic and harmful to human, is becoming a severe urban environmental problem. Recently, Roosegaarde’s Rotterdam-based studio presented its “smog-free bicycle” concept, which is, in theory to include a device installed on the bikes’ handlebars that can pull in and filter surrounding air to remove particulate matter and last release fresh air, as the picture below shows.
In order to exert significant effect, this program should be adopted on a huge scale. Chinese bicycle-share programs, like OFO and Mobike, could offer a good case study because the number of riders is considerably high, more than 50 million per day. This is an excellent idea that everyone can participate in and contribute to improving the current terrible air condition in their daily lives. Moreover, riders themselves can breathe in fresh air, which may cause more people to ride bikes instead of taking bus and driving and meanwhile transportation emissions may reduce.
At last, the concept appears to be theoretically effective in this particular case. Further questions are triggered: What is the level of feasibility? Will this concept also work in other Countries?
Citations:
Metcalfe, John. “How Bikes Might Eat China’s Deadly Urban Smog.” CityLab. May 23, 2017. Accessed September 10, 2018. https://www.citylab.com/life/2017/05/what-if-bikes-ate-smog/526962/.
“Smog.” Wikipedia. September 01, 2018. Accessed September 10, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smog.
Jacobs, Harrison. “I Tried the Two Chinese Bike-sharing Giants Trying to Take over the World, and It Was Immediately Obvious Why They Can’t Seem to Crack the US.” Business Insider. July 31, 2018. Accessed September 11, 2018. https://www.businessinsider.com/ofo-mobike-chinese-bicycle-sharing-apps-problems-with-us-expansion-2018-7.
