Breathe Easy: One Foreigner's Pollution-Defying Bike

Beijing-based artist Matt Hope has built a bike with an integrated air filtration system, as you do. It works pretty simply. As you pedal the bike, a static charge is generated which pulls away dust particles. The cleaned air is then passed down a tube into a mask worn by the rider. Pretty nifty. So what happens to all the electrified dust?

We expect it’s a bit like emptying out the vacuum cleaner. Matt explains his contraption and concept in the video above and in their article about the bike, design website core77 got this nice quote from the artist:

Still, Hope dryly notes that "if you ride this in the rain, you could potentially kill yourself"... which would probably result in a far more spectacular obituary than a slow, painful death of respiratory failure.

Bleak. What do you guys think? Anyone in the market for one of these contraptions?

Photos: core77