And what if 2012 was the year of the bicycle as well as the year of sustainable energy? This is what the Lille metropolis is betting on and wishing for, as it intends to create the first "cycle motorway" this year. One of the city’s main roads will thus be redeveloped in order to create three cycle lanes: work is due to start in mid-January and should be completed in August at an estimated cost of €1.2m (£1m, at current rates).
However, is it really safe to travel by bike? This is the question on the lips of all those who are hesitating to take the two-wheeled plunge, especially in urban areas. The Groupe Chronos website reviews the statistics. A reassuring conclusion is apparent: cycling-related accidents are “less serious” than those related to other means of transport. Following an accident, a cyclist will spend on average 0.75 days in hospital compared to 3.5 days for pedestrians.
The bike is good for your health, good for the environment and… pleasing to the eye! This is, in any case, what the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has shown. He has attached 1,200 bicycles together, with some of them hanging from the ceiling and the others fixed upright to the floor, reports the Gentside website. It is a monumental piece of work, which is exhibited at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum.
Speed and pollution are often said to be linked, particularly during the peaks generally recorded in the summer. However, Caradisiac wanted to clarify the situation and put the question to the French air and atmosphere quality monitoring association, ATMO. The verdict? Although a reduction in speed increases traffic congestion, it has an impact on braking and acceleration and produces the opposite effect.
Fighting pollution is one of the missions of the European Environment Agency (EEA), which is putting its foot down at the beginning of this year in order to remind automotive manufacturers of their targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Agency’s ambition for 2012 is for 65% of new vehicles to emit no more than 130g/km of CO2.
The police in electric cars? It’s possible and it’s in Rome! “In tourist areas, police officers responsible for very simple safety matters get around in electric cars” explains the Voiture-populaire-électrique website.
In October 2011, IBM published a study on parking congestion in towns. We learn, for example, that more than half of the inhabitants of New Delhi have argued over a parking space and that 28% of motorists in Chicago find a parking space within 5 minutes.
Light, heat, vibration: Greensystech is using all the means at its disposal to make electronic products energy independent. Cleantechrepublic.com presents this Normandy-based start-up, which offers electronic manufacturers the option to optimise their designs in order to get rid of batteries, facilitate maintenance and, ultimately, make savings.
MySociety, a British company that already offers several services aimed at connecting citizens and various authorities, is launching FixMyTransport: an application allowing citizens to report problems relating to public transport.
Do you know OpenStreetMaps? The Wikipedia of cartography is an essential player in online cartography services, which are indispensable to the mobility economy. Its special feature? It’s open and collaborative, unlike the proprietary projects that dominate the market. However, in only 7 years of existence, the OpenStreetMap project has managed to gather information on 2.7 billion GPS points and 115,000 roads.
Finally, who said that wind farms were spoiling the landscape? Daryoush Allaei, a former researcher at the US Departments of Defense and Energy, has designed the first underground wind farm: by burying the turbine, Dr. Allaei expects to reduce kW costs by between 19% and 36% compared to existing technology. The company that he has just created, Sheerwind, is currently looking for investors in order to develop its first prototypes.
