Hurry up and wait.
There’s nothing new or unusual about the idea of using bicycles to replace cars to help combat the effects of climate change on the environment. Neither is there anything new or unusual about it taking so long to put the concept into practice.
Oliver Lowenstein has spent several years in pursuit of what he says could become an environmentally sustainable network structured around economically viable “cyclestations” or covered rest points, which would help make long-distance travel more feasible for cyclists.
A touring exhibition titled “Riding on Empty: Designing our travel infrastructure for the end of oil” on show in Bermondsey Square until July 4 as part of the London Festival of Architecture includes models of shelters designed by architects Steven Johnson and Alex de Rijke.
The project has been ongoing since before 2005 when it was awarded a 700,000 pound EU Inter-regional grant in a group application led by the University of Brighton.
“It’s intended as an environmental synergy between sustainable architecture, design and sustainable forms of transport,” Lowenstein told Reuters.
“I think its time is fast approaching given that a whole slew of different elements are converging to affect how we travel,” he said citing oil depletion, climate change and built environments as factors.
Watch the video clip here:
Picture Credit: Picture shows a bicycle in the “Riding on Empty” exhibit in Bermondsey, London, June 22, 2010. REUTERS/Julie Mollins
