MIT researchers at its SENSEable City Laboratory have unveiled a project in Copenhagen aimed at transforming bicycle use, promoting urban sustainability and building new connections between the city’s cyclists. The project, called SmartBiking, will utilize a novel self-organizing smart-tag system that will allow the city’s residents to exchange basic information and share their relative positioning with each other.

As part of the project, a prototype of a smart bicycle is being developed in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab’s Smart Cities Group. This hybrid bicycle harvests the energy created when braking and releases it while cycling. All hybrid-drive elements, including the battery, are packed in the rear wheel, which becomes a self-contained component that could be retrofitted on most existing bicycles.

A considerable fraction of [Copenhagen’s] energy comes from renewable sources and, unlike a few decades ago, 30 to 40 percent of its citizens use bicycles as their primary method of transportation. So our challenge was, ‘How can we enhance these dynamics of sustainability? And how can we use technology to make them more widespread?’
—Carlo Ratti, Director of MIT’s SENSEable City Lab, which is overseeing the Smart Biking project

Policy planners may be burning mid night oil to tame inflation and overcome surging oil prices, but Hero Honda which seeks to capitalise on this by pushing cost effective and fuel efficient vehicles in the market.

"While it is true that double-digit inflation of 11-12 per cent would certainly upset household budgets and postpone certain purchases, the rise in auto fuel prices might actually turn out to be a blessing in disguise for the two-wheeler industry," Hero Honda Chairman Brijmohan Lall Munjal said in the company's Annual Report for 2007-08.

Cost effective and fuel efficient modes of transport would become more popular, he added.

"Since fuel prices are not expected to soften in the near term, fuel-efficient industries such as ours could be beneficiaries.

The scooter is becoming the new must-have set of wheels in a lot of American cities.

While auto sales have continued to sink, scooter sales were up 66% in the first half of 2008 compared to a year ago, while motorcycle sales overall only ticked up 0.5%, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council.

"About 5 years ago, most of the people were buying motor scooters more as a recreational product to enjoy on the weekend," said Paolo Timoni, president of Piaggio Group Americas, the maker of the Vespa scooter. "Nowadays, most of the people that buy this vehicle buy them as an alternative transportation vehicle."

Retail gas prices have come significantly off recent highs, but gas prices are still 33% higher than the same time last year, and that is motivation enough for Americans.

For those of you who had been hoping to get your hands on a new 2008 Zero X electric motorcycle, we have some bad news. They are all sold out. Now, the good news is that a new revised-for-'09 model will be making its first appearance at the Alt Car Expo in Santa Monica, California, on September 26-27. Of course, we'll be there, on the lookout for all the coolest greenery at the show. We'll need to wait until then to find out what changes have been made, but the press release after the break makes it sound like a thorough upgrade with changes to the frame, suspension, brakes and electric drivetrain. Specs indicate 23-horsepower and just 145-pounds to move around, plus rider. That should get things going pretty briskly. Want one? Don't worry, the new bike is scheduled to begin shipping next month, so the wait shouldn't be too terribly long.

We're not going to be posting on every single infusion of cash that a green start-up gets, but this one in particular is awfully interesting. First, the specifics: $10 million in funding has been secured by Brammo Motorsports for the production of its Enertia electric motorcycle, with Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital and Best Buy Capital being the two big contributors. That's right, Best Buy. This investment obviously leads many to believe that these new-fangled electric vehicles could show up in the retailer's showrooms. There are a few techy features that seem right up the Big Box retailer's alley, namely the on-board GPS chip and WiFi port, both of which help calculate your total carbon savings over a gas-powered machine.

This round of funding is said to be sufficient to bring the Brammo Enertia to production. When that date will be, though, is still not officially decided. Documents indicate that another $5 million may be made available to the company to facilitate its production intentions.

As spring began, we were hearing that gas prices could reach $4 per gallon by summer. In California, gas had already hit $4.50 as summer began, having doubled in a few short years. Of course, as fuel prices increase people begin casting about for more fuel-efficient forms of transportation, and now we’re frequently asked, “What kinda mileage you get on that motorcycle?” Well, my 1100 sport tourer gets about 40-45 mpg, depending upon how I ride it, and we all know that smaller bikes can get better mileage than that--much better.

How much better? At Rider, we decided to find out. For all those who want to lower their fuel costs while having more fun, we have assembled a group of nine small-to-midsize motorcycles to evaluate for their fuel economy, practicality and fun factor. We divided our test bikes into two categories, four fuel-frugal (fuelgal, get it?) little 250cc machines that are light, inexpensive and easy to handle, and five midsized bikes in the 500-750cc category. The latter could not only be used for commuting, but also for travel, fun, sporting about and carrying a passenger. One would not tire of them quickly.