Biking Downtown Could Help Power The Bus That Gives You A Ride Home
A new bike-sharing program stores the kinetic energy from the bikes to power buses, and gives cyclists a free bus ticket for helping out We've told you about bike-sharing programs before, but the Hybrid2 design by Chiyu Chen takes the idea one step further, by using the bikes to put power back in the system. The idea is to put "ultracapacitors" into the bikes that will harness and store the kinetic energy generated by pedaling and braking. Once you return the bike to its rental kiosk, the energy stored in the bike will be transferred to the city's smart grid, and used to help power hybrid buses. The city doesn't simply expect you to generate free electricity for them. The bikes come equipped with handlebars that display how much energy has been generated over the course of your bike ride. Once you return...