Posted on 09/29/2014 3:40:37 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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. […]
To fulfill this goal, the researchers built two bicycles and rode them on treadmills. …
(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...
Feds Spend $1.5 Million to Study Why Lesbians Are Fat
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/feds-spend-15-million-study-why-lesbians-are-fat
They just need to figure out how to get lesbians to ride bikes!
Brings to mind a study that the NTSB under Jill Claybrook did in the Carter administration. They decided that a motorcycle would be safer if it steered with the rear wheel and spent a huge amount of money having one built. Turns out it was safer because it was impossible to ride.
We’re are moments away before we are all in line at the DMV for licenses to ride bicycles. Just wait.
Have no fear, the Carl Rove/Jeb Bush/Mittens Romney wing of the republican party will come to the aid of the d’s and bail them out.
No that is just precious; it is hugh and series.
It's worse than waste.
It's the statists ladling out tax dollars to the politically faithful.
So be sure and give the occupant of the White House the answers! He hasn’t figured it out.
“Even the simplest models of a bicycle with a rigidly attached rider have yet to be completely understood,” the researchers wrote.”
These must all be the dorks who as kids, could never learn to ride without training wheels.
I understand it and it didn’t cost $300k...
Although I do think the idea of trying to come up with a ‘better’ bicycle (e.g. maybe more aerodynamic, easier on the lumbar spine of people with back problems etc.) is worthwhile, wouldn’t it make sense that the companies that make bicycles would be doing this design analysis. If you come up with something better, you sell more bikes (maybe). This just doesn’t seem like something the NSF should be funding.
Socialism Is Legal Plunder - Bastiat
BIG GOVERNMENT IS CRONY SOCIALISM
http://www.usa.gov/directory/federal/
DEFUND, DISMANTLE, DEPOPULATE
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
live - free - republic
This just shows there’s nothing to cut out of the federal budget. Oh wait, never mind.
And why would they study a rider RIGIDLY attached to a bicycle? I know of nobody that rides that way. The attachment between a bike and a rider is fluid and multi-tiered, so their study model is crap.
Although the average non-scientist might not see the purpose of such a study, there actually is a lot of value in understanding the physics of bicycle riding. Science and technology advances because scientists look at what seem to laypeople like simple processes and ask, “What is really happening here? What are the physical mechanisms behind this deceptively uncomplicated appearing process?”
By understanding such processes, we can, for example, help disabled people gain mobility. Engineers could even come up with a paradigm-shifting new bicycle design. I’m not thinking very imaginatively here—a physicist or engineer could, I am sure, come up with many other possibilities.
Your points are valid. The investigation should be funded by bicycle companies that stand to gain from such improvements. I can see no role for taxpayers in such a study.
Think free market.
Wow! Must have taken a lot of practice.
The better bicycle already exists. It is the recumbent bike. The real obstacle is that cars and recumbents don’t mix well and recumbents don’t work well on sidewalks. So people who would love to ride a recumbent won’t for safety reasons.
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