The Copenhagen Wheel: Urban Mobility aka Look At Me, I’m An Eco Snob

Developed at MIT in Boston, the Copenhagen Wheel allows you to capture the energy dissipated while cycling and braking and save it for when you need a bit of a boost. It also maps pollution levels, traffic congestion, and road conditions in real-time.

Controlled through your smart phone, the Copenhagen Wheel becomes a natural extension of your everyday life. You can use your phone to unlock and lock your bike, change gears and select how much the motor assists you. As you cycle, the wheels sensing unit is also capturing your effort level and information about your surroundings, including road conditions, carbon monoxide, NOx, noise, ambient temperature and relative humidity. Access this data through your phone or the web and use it to plan healthier bike routes, to achieve your exercise goals or to meet up with friends on the go. You can also share your data with friends, or with your city – anonymously if you wish thereby contributing to a fine-grained database of environmental information from which we can all benefit.

Now, although this is a nice product, i this is a bit extreme. I mean, wow they developed this at MIT?!? Yeah, but i also used to have something like this since i was 5 and it was called a dynamo. You throw in an iPhone , some “green points” and some social networks and all of a sudden this is the bicycle that Lance Armstrong used to dream about since he was a child. And what’s with that traffic information? Dudes at MIT, THIS IS A BICYCLE. Pretty much nobody cares about traffic when on a BICYCLE. And, all this eco shit. Really?!?! I mean i am all for some aspects of it, but some things are too extreme. And i will let my friend George explain some things to you…