Consumer societies produce enough plastic waste to power at least 10% of motorized road traffic. Dutch designer Gijs Schalkx grabbed the opportunity and now drives his car on the waste he collects.
We have launched the second volume in a new series of books opening up Low-tech Magazine’s archive by theme.
About a quarter of the existent wind turbines would suffice to power as many electric velomobiles as there are people.
The old-timers on these pictures are not moving furniture or an oversized load. What can be seen on the roof is the fuel tank of the vehicle - a balloon filled with uncompressed gas.
The human power required to achieve a speed of 30 km/h in a velomobile is only 79 watts, compared to 271 watts on a normal bicycle.
We don’t need better batteries, we need better cars.
One hundred years ago electric cars were a common sight on city streets in Europe and the United States.
During the Second World War, almost every motorised vehicle in continental Europe was converted to use firewood.
We don’t need any new cycling infrastructure. What we need is to clear the current road infrastructure of inefficient vehicles and replace them with efficient ones.
Fast recharging times generate lots of excitement, but what seems to be forgotten is that they can lead to a fabulous amount of peak demand.
If we cut the average speed of all vehicles by half, fuel consumption would decrease by a whopping 75 percent.
In spite of all the high-tech that has been squeezed into cars, the 2CV from 1949 is still more energy efficient than the smallest Citroen today.