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What if bikes had been invented earlier?
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this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2024
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Solarpunk Urbanism
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A community to discuss solarpunk and other new and alternative urbanisms that seek to break away from our currently ecologically destructive urbanisms.
- Henri Lefebvre, The Right to the City — In brief, the right to the city is the right to the production of a city. The labor of a worker is the source of most of the value of a commodity that is expropriated by the owner. The worker, therefore, has a right to benefit from that value denied to them. In the same way, the urban citizen produces and reproduces the city through their own daily actions. However, the the city is expropriated from the urbanite by the rich and the state. The right to the city is therefore the right to appropriate the city by and for those who make and remake it.
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We kinda did: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/12/how-to-downsize-a-transport-network-the-chinese-wheelbarrow/
This is great - I kinda want to build one for hauling groceries now. There are sidewalks all the way to the big grocery store here but they're so messed up that those collapsible shopping carts with their little wheels are more trouble than they're worth. I've thought about getting/building a cargo bike but I don't like my odds on that road, though it'd be useful elsewhere. Mostly we settle for just limiting it to what we can carry or driving once in a while. Might be a fun project though, I'll have to look up modern designs.
I guess on modern paved side-walks these Chinese wheelbarrows don't offer that much of an advantage, but I can easily see how great they would be on a typical well walked natural footpath.
Definitely agreed it'd work well on footpaths. I think given what frost heaves and the city budget have done to local sidewalks, it might still be useful (I'm not sure they count as modern or well-paved). If I can find some more square tubing, and some mesh or perforated metal for the guard around the wheel, I think it could be a fun bit of welding practice. It's too bad the larger bike wheel sizes seem to be very expensive.
Maybe look for a modern horse-cart wheel. There are some pretty lightweight ones that are very tall.
That's a good idea, I'll see what I can find!