The E-Bike and The City

We listed the Copenhagen Wheel, designed by MIT’s SENSEable City Lab, in The Green Vanguard, our A-to-Z list of sustainable design in this month’s issue of Metropolis. The device not only converts a standard bicycle into an electric cruiser, but can also upload information on air and noise pollution, traffic, and road conditions to the rider’s smart phone. And if that were not enough, this new video suggests that the cheerful red wheel hub could have larger implications.

We’ve always known that getting citizens to ride bikes can make the city a greener place. But now, thanks to the Copenhagen Wheel, each bike can be turned into a research tool for urban planners, directly influencing the decisions they make. Cycling to work just became an even smarter idea.