Feds Spent $300,000 Studying How to Ride Bikes

[Origanalist]

What's a measly 300 grand in the scheme of things......


Researchers rode bikes on treadmills with taxpayer money

BY: Elizabeth Harrington
September 26, 2014 4:15 pm

The National Science Foundation (NSF) spent $300,000 studying how “humans interact with bicycles,” the latest example of what a House committee chairman calls waste in the agency.

The premise for the project, which was conducted between October 2009 and June 2013, was that bicycle dynamics are “poorly understood,” and researchers set out to come up with new designs to encourage more Americans to bike to lower their carbon footprint.

(why is that the job of the federal government?)

“Although human operator control models exist for numerous aircraft and other vehicles, the bicycle with a rider is a human-vehicle system whose dynamic behavior is poorly understood,” researchers at the University of California, Davis said in a paper publishing their interim results.

The paper said the authors had “deeper questions” about how people control bikes, and argued that no designs in the last century have been made with “desired handling qualities.”

“Even the simplest models of a bicycle with a rigidly attached rider have yet to be completely understood,” the researchers wrote.

“If successful, this research will improve the fundamental understanding of how humans interact with bicycles and will help pave the way to the design of bicycles for a wider population and for a wider range of tasks,” they added.

To fulfill this goal the researchers built two bicycles and rode them on treadmills.

continued at...

freebeacon.com/issues/feds-spent-300000-studying-how-to-ride-bikes/

[tod evans]

Ask any 5-8 year old kid...

[phill4paul]

^^^ One reason why I will not pay a Federal income tax. More so than a Federal tax evader, I'm a Federal tax objector. And I object to anyone stealing one thin dime for this kind of crap.

[Danke]

More effective way to reduce carbon footprint:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YkgDhDa4HHo

[presence]

Meanwhile regulating the $#@! out of any innovation in the industry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electri...nd_regulations

[Ronin Truth]

Is that 300K just for how to ride bikes, or AND chew gum at the same time. No, probably just to ride bikes.

[Origanalist]

Meanwhile regulating the $#@! out of any innovation in the industry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electri...nd_regulations

They must set the parameters and maintain iron fisted control, for THEY are the masters.

[Suzanimal]

(why is that the job of the federal government?)

It's for the children.

[oyarde]

$#@!s.

[acptulsa]

Oh God. Teh Gubbermint is about to start designing our bicycles for us. No doubt they'll do to The American Bicycle what they did to The American Car.

Just wait. In three years you won't be able to buy a bicycle in this country that doesn't make Steve Carrell's bike from The Forty Year Old Virgin look both fast and sexy.

Well, it's good the federal government is preparing to piss bicyclists off. After all, it doesn't hurt our cause if they piss every American off...

It's for the children.

Yup. And despite their lip service claiming this will help the environment by making bicycling more attractive, the fact is the oil companies want to ensure that bicycling is not sexy and ensure every red-blooded adult will go without food to buy gasoline. And what better way than to let Teh Gubbermint insist that the only bicycles made are so heavy, ugly and slow that even children hate them.

Of course, children will be stuck with them. But all adults have to do to avoid them is burn petroleum products and belch carbon. Which is the thing they say they're trying to get us to not do.

Good thing progressives are dense or they might not say overthrowing over a century of orderly mechanical evolution and practical Tour de France experience for some engineering-challenged cross-eyed bureaucrat's conception of the device is a splendid idea.

[Origanalist]

Oh God. Teh Gubbermint is about to start designing our bicycles for us. No doubt they'll do to The American Bicycle what they did to The American Car.

Just wait. In three years you won't be able to buy a bicycle in this country that doesn't make Steve Carrell's bike from The Forty Year Old Virgin look both fast and sexy.

Well, it's good the federal government is preparing to piss bicyclists off. After all, it doesn't hurt our cause if they piss every American off...

NY Times Calls Obama Bicycle Photos ‘Rugged Masculinity Gone Wild!’

The ladies on daytime television’s “The View” tapped into the photo hysteria, with Joy Behar telling the audience, “If Obama rode his bike into my neighborhood I’d make him have sex with me in the street!” After Whoopie Goldberg high-fived Behar, Barbara Walters stood up and began grinding her hips, much to the delight of the screaming audience.

http://www.thedailyrash.com/ny-times...nity-gone-wild

[surf]

I can make biking more efficient by removing helmet laws.

- living in the great and liberal northwest, I get the dirtiest looks and unwelcome comments whenever I go riding - sans helmet. I also cross my fingers that there won't be any cops waiting near city hall to hand me a ticket.

[Root]

Epic fail. SWC Obama looks like a giant tool on his bike. Gaper fender, check. Seat too low, check. No disc brakes, check. Back tire low on air pressure, check. Jeans, check. I'm embarrassed for him.

[presence]

[Noob]

[Anti Federalist]

The ladies on daytime television’s “The View” tapped into the photo hysteria, with Joy Behar telling the audience, “If Obama rode his bike into my neighborhood I’d make him have sex with me in the street!” After Whoopie Goldberg high-fived Behar, Barbara Walters stood up and began grinding her hips, much to the delight of the screaming audience.

Eh, never mind...not worth the headache.

[Anti Federalist]

I can make biking more efficient by removing helmet laws.

- living in the great and liberal northwest, I get the dirtiest looks and unwelcome comments whenever I go riding - sans helmet. I also cross my fingers that there won't be any cops waiting near city hall to hand me a ticket.

They do know those stupid looking bicycle helmets are next to worthless don't they?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/he...n-surgeon.html

A leading neurosurgeon has controversially claimed that cyclists who wear helmets are wasting their time.

Henry Marsh, who works at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, London, said that many of his patients who have been involved in bike accidents have been wearing helmets that were ‘too flimsy’ to be beneficial.

He made the comments while speaking at the Hay Festival during a discussion with Ian McEwan, whose 2005 novel Saturday featured a neurosurgeon.

He cited evidence from the University of Bath that suggests that wearing a helmet may even put cyclists at greater risk. The research showed that drivers get around 3 inches closer to cyclists who wear helmets because they perceive them as safer.

He said: “I ride a bike and I never wear a helmet. In the countries where bike helmets are compulsory there has been no reduction in bike injuries whatsoever.

[Anti Federalist]

This will be the new mandatory bike outfit.



And one of these on your melon:

[Origanalist]

I need one of those....

[Origanalist]

I can make biking more efficient by removing helmet laws.

- living in the great and liberal northwest, I get the dirtiest looks and unwelcome comments whenever I go riding - sans helmet. I also cross my fingers that there won't be any cops waiting near city hall to hand me a ticket.

I go through Redmond all the time, I can vouch for the veracity of this (not that anybody is doubting him), Redmond calls itself the bicycle capital of the Northwest and they all wear rubber butt pants and wear superdork helmets. And clog up the rural roads on nice days just because they're "special people".

[trey4sports]

Is that 300K just for how to ride bikes, or AND chew gum at the same time. No, probably just to ride bikes.

they will need a million dollar infusion if they want to study how to do both.

[Anti Federalist]

I need one of those....