Street Pickings: Riding Rebels

Sticking it to the man one Kryptonite at a time, and then some art.

STREET PICKINGS

As seen in the oh-so-rebellious streets of Philadelphia:

Notice also the little (decapitated) red guy on the sign — a seemingly brand new addition to the infamous Toynbee guerrilla mystery. (Remember that?)

Meanwhile, if you’re in Philly and bike-minded, be sure to check out the velo + city: the social history of the bicycle exhibition at the Lisa M Reisman gallery — a collection of vintage prints, posters and ephemera, from the penny-farthing to the diamond frame.

Conveniently, it’s right off of Rittenhouse Square (1714 Rittenhouse Square St), the very locale of the above fence — so savor the Philly bike scene experience in its entirety with the delectable combo of art and law-breaking.

RFID vs. Honor

What third world children have to do with NYC commuting and why RFID beats honor systems every time.

YOU BE CYCLIST

Remember when the One Laptop Per Child program first made waves and everyone thought a $100 laptop for the third world was anywhere from laughable to plain undoable? Well, two years later OLPC has had the last laugh with its world-changing success, and the design team behind it is after a brand new revolutionary initiative.

The guys at Continuum have just concepted Ubicycle: a high-tech yet brilliantly user-friendly public bike-share system. It’s simple: you “rent” a bike using the same funds-loaded Smart card you use on trains and buses. It’s RFID-enabled, so whenever you use it to unlock a bike from the rack, the system knows who’s taking the goodie. (Sure beats a may-or-may-not-honor honor system.)

And speaking of the rack, each nifty modular station holds 2 bikes and the racks can be stacked horizontally. Seven of them (that’s 14 bikes for the mathematically- challenged) take as much space as a single parked car. The lock mechanisms are powered by the solar panels coating the kiosks for the ultimate cherry on top.

(Meanwhile, Philly is still trying to get the very, very 1.0 Philly BikeShare program off the ground. Hey, at least we’re trying.)

via PSFK