[Attoparsec] occasionally rides a bicycle for transportation, but with the major downside of doing this in North America, a place where bicycle infrastructure is generally neglected. From snow removal, maintenance, separation from cars, or even existing in the first place, the places bicyclists use are generally last to be cared for. One of these deficiencies is landscaping maintenance, with plant growth routinely extending into travel ways. Rather than continue to get hit in the face by tree branches, [Attoparsec] took matters into his own hands, or in this case, head.
Since he’s riding down the bike path anyway, the original thought was to add a trimmer to the front of the bicycle. This has a notable downside of being dangerous to others, so instead he added a string trimmer to his helmet. The electric trimmer was scavenged from an old handheld landscaping tool, with a 3D printed mount designed in CAD to cleanly mount to his bicycle helmet. It’s wired to a control on the handlebar, so when a branch is coming up it can be activated by hand and then pruned without much thought other than properly aiming one’s head.
By most measures this eccentric contraption seems to work quite well. There’s not enough torque to affect the rider’s head in any negative way, the strings are long enough to reach far enough to trim the leaves and branches before they can impact the rider’s face, and it’s safe for other users of the bike path. [Attoparsec] calls this “guerrilla urban landscaping”, a bit different from other forms of guerrilla gardening we have seen before.
Bikers may have a “right” to be on the road, but all in all they are a massive nuisance. From holding up traffic, because they are going well under the speed limit, to their flagrant disregard for stop signs/stop lights.
I can’t drive on a bike path, so maybe they shouldn’t ride on the road.
Here in Europe I blatantly disregard most “laws” when riding a bicycle. Try to stop me ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Riding on a sidewalk (among pedestrians) – sure. Even if I’m doing mere 15 km/h it’s usually faster than car traffic which is stuck on a series of red lights. So much for green wave automated traffic flow management system blah blah blah.
Riding across pedestrian crossings – sure. In theory there’s a fine for doing that. In practice there’s no crime if you don’t get caught.
Ignoring red lights (on pedestrian crossings only) – sure. Unless there’s a heavy traffic, I don’t see a point in wasting 2-5 minutes every time I need to cross the road. Look left, look right, if there’s no one coming, you can go.
Not using helmet – sure. I’ve been riding bicycles for the last 30 years. The only notable cycling injury I suffered was hitting a sharp corner with underside of my knee when I was 10 years old. Use common sense, avoid car traffic and you don’t need to be a mushroom-headed regard.
Toppling over electric scooters – sure. It’s always fun to block the sidewalk for everyone else 😛
You can get angry, call me stupid, lawless or evil, I don’t care. Cities in Europe are dense, often centuries old and were not designed for cars so being agile on a bicycle is a natural choice. I will only drive my car if the distance is above 5-10 km.