Bicycles are used to great effect by those in the developing world for many of the same reasons that make them so popular in London; they use no fuel, are cheap to repair and deal well with roads in a terrible state of repair.
Doctors and nurses in Africa already use bicycles to reach patients in remote locations and the bicycle pumps they carry as standard are set to become their latest piece of life-saving piece of medical equipment.
Innovations in health
MIT’s Innovations in International Health programme develops health technologies for patients and physicians in ‘resource-poor’ settings.
Researchers have designed kits that allow cheap, everyday items to be adapted into medical devices. Thousands of items of medical equipment are each year donated to Africa, but cannot be used because they do not work well outside the conditions of a hospital.
For example the nebulisers used by asthma sufferers in the west are complex, electric-powered units, but the principle behind them is simple. Instead of using an air compressor, the adapted design uses a foot-operated bike pump for the same result.
Innovate or die
A tricycle that purifies water as it travels along beat thousands of other ideas in 2009 to win the global ‘Innovate or Die’ competition to find a pedal-powered design to help save the environment. The trike is designed for use in developing countries were contaminated water is a problem.
The Aquaduct is ridden to a water source and its 15-litre tank filled. As its rider pedals back home, a peristaltic pump draws the water from the storage tank through a filter to a removeable 7-litre clean tank. When more water is needed, the tank is replaced and the remaining clean water can be drawn from the trike’s tank.
When the bicycle company Specialized and internet giant, Google launched the ‘Innovate or Die’ competition to find a pedal-powered design to save the environment, it was hard to imagine that an idea for anything greener than the bicycle itself would come to light. It didn’t, but the Aquaduct bicycle highlights the fact that 1 billion people do not have access to clean water and in excess of 5,000 children die each day due to water related diseases.
Cycle insurance
Cycle insurance from the ETA includes, amongst other things, new-for-old, third party insurance (in the case of an accident you may need to seek compensation or even deal with a claim by someone else), personal accident cover, race event cover and if you suffer a mechanical breakdown, they will come out and recover you and your bike. Get an instant, no obligation quote below.
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