Thursday, February 25, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
I spoke this week through a live video skype chat with a co-worker in Indonesia..her first question to me was, "So, is everybody all a-buzz with the new IPad that came out?..as we talked more I soon learned that Indonesia, like parts of Japan and China are light-year's ahead of us in some aspects of using technology, and they follow the tech world very closely. One tech-savvy friend recently returned from China and said he ran across one teen using his mobile phone with tools he had never even heard of before."Oh that", the youth said, "ya it's been around. Wait a couple years, it will eventually make it to the States too."
The use of new technology on bikes seems to be following the same path. China continues to forge a path, but unfortunately with its bikes it is so far using the wrong "app". It's disregarding the environmental wisdom of combining human power WITH electric/tech power, and trying to do it all with an all-electric bike, and forgetting about the human power that directs it. Fortunately, while the US is about 5 years behind China in the use of e-bikes, the good news is we are taking a better approach so far by putting bikes out there that combine the two pwoer sources perfectly. And if you want to find a bike shop in Seattle that truly understands this, promotes it, and yet doesn't oversell the whole idea, go to NW Electric Bikes. http://www.electricvehiclesnw.com/main/contact.htm The owners know what they are talking about, have been doing this for years, and I believe may be at the forefront of a tidal shift in how we get around in the coming decade in urban America.
To read a recent NY Times article comparing the US and China approaches, see: http://s.nyt.com/u/tSp
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