dietstu

BTW, that's supposed to be: "Use your bike to power buses." Which, I realize now, is misleading since it's not your bike. But maybe some day your bike will be able to power a bus.
VIA Engadget.
"Hybrid bikes are one thing, but designer Chiyi Chen looks to have some far grander in mind for his Hybrid2 bike concept, which he says could one day help power fleets of city buses. To do that, the hybrid part of the bike (a regenerative braking system) wouldn't be used to help power the bike itself at all, but would instead store the energy in an ultracapacitor that'd then feed the energy back into the grid when its parked at a special bike stand, which would in turn be used to help charge the hybrid electric buses. Not one to overlook an ingenious little detail, Chen has also devised a special card RFID card that would not only be used to unlock the bike, but keep track of the energy that each rider generates -- build up enough credits and you can ride the bus for free. Intrigued? Head on past for a video overview from the man himself."



Wow. Put all that energy to use. I wonder, in real world terms, how much energy this'll create.

xenologer

Skeptical on the cost effectivness of it, would the energy generated from the regen braking system outweight the maintenance cost of the bikes themselves? I kinda doubt it...
Also not interested in earning credit for a free bus ride.
Silly program.

Now, the regenerative braking system itself, sounds interesting as something to have on my personal bike. I'm assuming this means magnets instead of brake pads to slow you down. If thats true, yay I get to save money on brake pads and rims; and get to use it as a generator for lights...

cervantes3773

Sounds cool, though, I'd rather receive a small kick back than free bus rides.

Rob_E

Free bus rides is a bad incentive. If you cash in, you stop biking and therefore stop generating energy for the bus. Better would be rental of the bikes, with free rental if you generate enough power. For that matter, why use one type of transit to power another kind? If bikes catch on, the buses will be valued less. If buses catch on, there may be less bikes. Rather just let the energy go back into the power system with a credit to whoever generated it, just like can be done with wind generators and solar cells.

But I agree this is probably an idea ahead of its time in that it is probably technically possible, but likely not financially viable. I like the idea. I'd love to see it work, but I suspect it will be a long time coming.

tadawdy

how much power? well, how many Watts can you do? I, of course, can do, like, thousands.

lz4005

Probably a fraction of the additional energy that would be required to pedal the much heavier bicycles.

How would this be better than, say, putting a solar panel above each of the bike racks? It would provide some protection from the elements for the rental bikes, lowering the cost of maintaining them; would probably be more cost effective given current technology; would generate power during any daylight hours the bikes weren't being used, unlike regenerative brakes; and would not make the bikes more difficult to ride, which would encourage more people to use them.

crackerdog

I sure this will work as soon as we repeal the law of thermodynamics.

CaptainCool

In real world terms, zero. Bike through the city all day on one of those and you might generate a few cents worth of electricity.

mastershake916

I can't say anything better than that.

JeffS

Great. The next student project to be cross-posted to every bike related site on the internet.