Pedal power

A couple of architecture students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology took first prize in a sustainable construction competition by proposing a way to harvest energy from people’s footsteps on a “crowd farm”.

The theory is that pressure-sensitive bricks placed under floors would “spin dyanamos” – mini generators that convert kinetic energy to electrical energy when people walk on them.

Though converting foot power to some kind of fuel makes me think of those cars in The Flintstones where the Stone Agers just lift the vehicle and run, it’s more sophisticated than that.

If this ever gets beyond the theoretical stages, I reckon that harvesting energy from step classes (“You at the back, stop slacking or no one gets a hot shower”) will go down OK. In less competitive environments, there will always be some people who walk faster than others, and so will feel entitled to lower electricity bills.

I bring your attention to the Facebook internet community called “I walk faster than you. Get the hell out of the way”, which has more than 23,500 members logging in to say the most dreadful things about people who walk in front of them too slowly.

One writes: “You have to kick them in the back of the knees to get them to move” – which, in purely scientific terms, is a great example of kinetic energy.

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