The technology behind this bike goes way beyond the meaning of “hybrid.” Here is how it works: You rent one of these bikes from a city kiosk and use it to transport yourself around. When you use your strength to pedal and move forward, you are charging the bike up with kinetic energy. When you are done using the bike, you return it to the city kiosk. Once returned, the stored kinetic energy in the bike is contained in the kiosk where it combines with the kinetic energy from the other parked bikes. The combined kinetic energy then feeds energy to the city’s “smart grid” where it helps recharge and power the city’s fleet of hybrid electric buses. The more energy you contribute to the smart grid, the more credit you receive towards your next bus pass. How cool? The magic behind this concept, created by Chiyu Chen, is the regenerative braking system he calls “”hybrake,” which allows riders to generate and store energy from braking and normal biking in an ultracapacitor.” Chen has imagined that “the more energy a bicyclist generates, the more monetary credit they are given to use on public transportation.” In addition, Chen has proposed an idea for personal ID cards that will store the credit gained from generating the energy for the bus system and a solar-powered bike stand with RFID unlock-lock capabilities. Here’s to a future of people creating kinetic energy with their bikes to generate power for a city filled with electric buses leaving us with less conjested, traffic-free cities around the nation! Look after the break for a video of Chen explaining how it all works in his own words.
