Image Credit: Fast Company
At this point, it’s a pretty universal truth: Bikes are better for the earth. If everyone were to trade in their cars for a bike, we would live on a much greener planet. According to the Sierra Club, we could save 2 billion gallons of gas annually if Americans made just one 4-mile trip by bike instead of by car each week.
But designers at Lightfog may have developed a way to actively purify our planet’s air… Simply by pedaling to and from your destination each day.
The bike would essentially perform the same function as trees by harnessing their natural systems. According to the Fast.Co, “its aluminum frame would run on a “photosynthesis system” that generates oxygen through a reaction between water and electric power from a lithium-ion battery.”
When commuters ride through the city, the bike would “suck up” polluted air, pulling it into its compact reactor and purifying it. As a result, the vessel serves as both a transportation tool and an air filtration system.
Image Source: Fast.Co
The Air-Purifier Bike was recently awarded the Red Dot Design Award, which awarded the design for fulfilling both transit and environmental functions. It was also lauded for its complex – yet feasible – functions: “While it is being ridden, air passes through the filter at the front of the bike, where it is cleaned before being released toward cyclist. The bike frame houses the photosynthesis system. When the bike is parked, the air purifying functions can continue under battery power.”
As of yet, the bike is still in mockup-stage; there is no functioning prototype. However, the bike has gathered notice from scientists who claim that its design is feasible, creating the possibility that it could become a mainstream transportation tool in the coming years. In cities like Shanghai, where smog levels are so high that residents were ordered to stay indoors for seven days straight, this could be an especially valuable tool.
Photosynthesis bikes seem to have a ring of “futuristic sci-fi” to them, but we are increasingly being pressured to find real solutions for our planet’s environmental problems – and, as a result, what once seemed outlandish is now in the realm of possibility. We have to blend pragmatic thinking with creative innovation to create resolutions that stick.
Climate change requires something greater than a “band-aid fix.” It demands a social shift, a global movement to make more sustainable choices. And the Air-Purifier Bike represents just one idea in the vast frontier of new, solutions-based thinking. But the real question is: Will it work?