A few things I’ve been meaning to blog: The Worldbike is a cargo-carrying bicycle designed for Africa, where the vast majority of bicycles are used as cargo-carrying vehicles, many of them for small entrepreneurs making a living by transporting goods. Several years ago, our own Jer helped Paul Freedman’s team design the Worldbike. Now the bike has appeared in the Cooper-Hewitt design museum’s exhibit, “Design for the Other 90%”. Vancouver’s planning model is one we’ve long admired. Now, however, they’re pushing the boundaries even farther with their new plan for ecodensity. As the Vancouver Sun puts it, “Vancouver should put high-density housing next to its major parks and along every one of its major streets, suggests the first draft of Vancouver’s ecodensity charter… The city should also close down some roads to cars and require developers to include solar power, rainwater collection, and laundry drying facilities in any new project.” Indeed, Vancouver’s plan is explicitly aimed at reducing that city’s ecological footprint. Ubuntu is a popular Linux distribution that has gained a terrific reputation among geeks I know based on its stability and grace. That hasn’t kept people (including myself) from wondering whether the hassle of installing it is worth… (more)
(Posted by Alex Steffen in Transportation at 11:46 AM)