The same Dutch designer who brought a giant smog-sucking tower to Beijing is now designing smaller, more personal smog-sucking devices: Bikes. Dan Roosegarde’s Smog Free Bicycle works in essentially the same way as his giant air-purifying towers, vacuuming up polluted air and trapping smog particles with an electric field powered by pedaling.
Supported by the Chinese government, Roosegarde’s project is clever since it would simultaneously clear smog while offering an alternative to pollution-producing car travel. Beijing’s bike culture is growing fast, with more than one million bikes on the city’s streets and counting.
“Beijing used to be an iconic bicycle city,” Roosegaarde told Designboom. “We want to bring back the bicycle—not only as a cultural icon of china, but also as the next step towards smog-free cities.”
Beijing has one of the world’s worst smog problems endangering inhabitants and architecture alike. But the city has lately taken steps to mitigate the problem, including planning to replace 67,000 gas-powered taxis with electric cars and working with pollution-control specialists like Roosegaarde.
Via: Designboom