We spend an awful lot of time talking about cars here at EcoGeek. And that's not necessarily something that we're proud of. We think that cars, in the end, can never be green...only greener. Which is why we love Carectomy, and also why we love these bike trees.

In general, bike racks suck. They're used improperly, often there aren't enough around, and they can even be downright insecure. Parking and walking away from your thousand-dollar investment is never fun, especially when we all know that any lock, with enough persistence, can be cut.

Enter the bike tree, a marvolous bit of technology which will keep your bike safe in any situation (save a meteorite.) Abhinav Dapke of Bahrain and India designed the trees to deal with theft, and with congested bike parking. The trees actually use significantly less space than traditional bike parking.

Just hook your bike into the device, push the thumbprint scanner, and the bike gets lifted to safety. When you return, scan your thumb again your bike comes down to meet you. A simple system, and one that could also be performed with RFID or a swipe card, to lower the costs of thumb-scanning.

In any case, one more way to make biking more convenient. Now if they just put a roof over the whole thing we  wouldn't have to worry about soggy-butts after a rainstorm.

Via TreeHugger

Comments (7)

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written by kohlcass , May 13, 2008

Cute idea - was this just a design proposal or has a manufacturer already tried executing it?

Hmmz
written by EcoModder , May 13, 2008

But if you can reach them, you can just pop the skewers and take the frame!

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written by Bob Wallace , May 13, 2008

How about some bike crushers for those bikes dumped across the sidewalk and in doorways?

I dunno...
written by Paige , May 13, 2008

Great idea, but it seems like it might be a little cumbersome to use. Plus the technology will of course be expensive and we in North America probably won't catch on as quickly. And as EcoModder noted, the lack of height of the "tree" still allows for theft.

I think I prefer this design, actually: http://www.treehugger.com/file...ocke_1.php

Seems a little safer to me. And solar!

Clever .. only not.
written by Bram , May 14, 2008

Very clever idea, and I really like it! Except for the fingerprint crap. Which idiot thought of that idea? I can copy a fingerprint faster than I can steal a locked bike. Seriously.

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written by James Cowind , July 02, 2008

The fingerprint requirement sounds like a privacy problem.

Tisalredy
written by Djarada , July 19, 2008

In Hamburg Germany this already exists albeit in a slightly diff form.
The bikes hang in the same way inside a hexagonal house.
One just has to have have the authority to open it,spin the reel(which holds many more bikes than this idea)till ones own bike wheels into view,remove,shut and lock the door an bobs yur uncle

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