Biking is better for the environment. Why not do it with a sense of horsey humor, in an ecotard?
Earlier today we reported on two women who plan to traverse 10,000 miles of Silk Road on bicycles. Their mission is serious – to promote trans-boundary conservation of fragile ecosystems. Now Treehugger has introduced an entirely different tone of bike.
Designer Eungi Kim created a sort of clip-on accessory that looks like the silhouette of a horse for the Seoul Cycle Design Competition 2010. While the jury is out on whether the resources needed to create the spirit spoils the fun, our eco-minded friends at the Guardian and Treehugger vote not-guilty.
In the title, I used the term “ecotard.” The person who used it to disparage an environmentally aware festival-goer in Israel who accidentally started a fire in the Golan meant for it to mean “retarded” hippie. But in our internal dialogue, we Green Prophet writers (actually, Karen Chernick made the suggestion) decided that we liked the frilly variety of that invented word.
Riding such a personalized bike can lighten up the sometimes stressful world of climate change and rising temperatures, according to Treehugger, who quotes The Guardian’s Peter Walker:
Who wouldn’t feel better pedalling around with the wooden silhouette of a horse’s head, body and tail clamped to the frame of your bike? Well, maybe quite a lot of people. However impractical and whimsical it might be, I love the way the designer, Eungi Kim, has captured the essential thrill of riding a bike. If driving a car around a city can feel like being trapped in your own personal, (slowly) mobile prison cell, then on a good day cycling is more like cantering along a prairie.
The only thing I would add to this breathless vision is an ecotard. A glowing green lacy thing that frees the inner ecollect as the cyclist tears across the urban landscape on a shadowy steed.
More fun design stories that will free your inner ecollect:
A Nice Way To Stick It To The Eco-Deniers In Your Household
Interview With Designboom Competition Anna Braverman
Sturdy Chamber Pot Doubles As Watering Can
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
OMy, is it totally etarded to say how much I want one of those? 🙂 As a horse-ridin’ gal, those wheels have style! Great one, Tafline.
It definitely has to have frills, don’t you think? 🙂
You Ecotard, you! So it has to have frills?
🙂 Hilarious post Taf