In some non-gondola, transit related news, we happened to stumble across what has to be one of my favourite transport contraptions ever realized by man — the Beer Bike.
Image by Flickr user dutchamsterdam.nl.
With a ride on bar, you get to kill two birds (or three) with one stone: exercise, reduce carbon emissions, and have a drink. Why this idea has yet to sail across the Atlantic to North America is still a mystery to me but I hope someone is seriously looking into the possibility.
5 Comments
the same amount fun it is for the ‘human engines’, the same it is annoying to the others in traffic. usually there is a traffic line behind the beer-bike.
let me answer your concern about the reason why it’s yet not arrived in america with a question: how much beer would you need to make men cycle over the atlantic sea? 😉
seriously: start your own beer-bike-business wherever you are.
Might be tricky legally. Most cities in the US you can’t walk down the street with an open beer, and almost everywhere you can’t have an open beer in a moving vehicle – even if you aren’t driving. I think legislators just didn’t have enough foresight to envision such a means of travel.
I believe this is in at least 2-3 US cities as well… probably depends if the local police look the other way. Some cities locally in the SF Bay Area do that… some like Campbell crack down on the food trucks and if they don’t have a license, the first ticket is $200 and the second offense is $1k, jail time and impounding of the food truck.
So I’d imagine this might fly under the radar for a short time, but once they find out you’re charging the cities probably want to dip a hand in your pocket and get the $1k fee (for the food portion) and God knows what the added kicker would be for the booze portion, IF they’d approve it in the first place.
Portland has them: http://brewcycleportland.com/
There are a few more in the US. Apparently the beer bikes have one driver who is steering and not drinking, which is how they avoid drinking and driving charges.
I saw a beerbike in Indianapolis, Indiana recently, and had to stop walking because I was laughing so hard.
I could see it being popular in college towns, though.