Bicycling is a beautiful thing – it’s an efficient, quick way to get
around an urban area and it’s great for your heart. Only problem is
those pesky cars that are continually getting in the way! What if you
could have your own bicycle traffic lane completely separate from the
cars and safely out of their way? Martin Angelov, a Bulgarian
architect, came up with this incredible concept for urban bicycle
transportation – a bike lane in the sky that he calls “Kolelinia”. It
looks a lot like a tightrope contraption, but this fairly
sophisticated design is meant to handle commuting bikes on a steel
wire high above traffic to connect popular destinations.
Angelov’s Kolelinia system consists of a series of towers connected by
steel wires with a U-shaped rim. The connectors and wires operate in a
similar way to a ski lift, except without using electricity.
Bicyclists ride up to entrance and put their bike tires into the
U-shaped rim and attach their specialized handle to the safety wire.
Then they ride across just as though they were riding on pavement. At
least that’s how it works in theory. Kolelinia aims to create a new
type of transportation experience, and can be installed using a
minimal amount of resources.
Angelov’s idea was selected as the City Transportation winner in the
“Line of Site” international architecture competition last year, so
there are people out there who are interested in the project. Angelov
was also asked to speak about the project at Sophia’s TED Conference
recently.
Posted via email from nikhilm's posterous
Posts
