Video: Toronto cops bust pedal-powered Buick

[MetroMPG]

I knew of this one before it broke all over the interwebs. Too busy to post at the time, now I just look like a big, fat "me too!" guy.

Poor me. Anyway...

Along similar lines as the Green Hummer Project , only MUCH heavier:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSwig1tgUtY

[MetroMPG]

From the Toronto Star:

Driven earlier this year in downtown New York, the vehicle attracted little attention. Driven later in Montreal, the artist's hometown, it merely received a police warning. But everyone should have known things wouldn't go so easily in Hogtown (Toronto) [...]

"Cruising at speeds of up to, oh, 12 kilometres per hour," writes gallery director Dave Dyment on the Mercer Union website, "we drove nine blocks (from Lisgar to Strachan) before being pulled over by the police." The charge? "Operating an unsafe vehicle."

Mercer Union spokespeople have been assured by their lawyer that they have a good chance of winning their case. Trial date is set for April 3.

http://www.thestar.com/article/282480

Buick installation @ Mercer Union - A Centre for Contemporary Art

[MetroMPG]

From a blog entry by two of the participants (Mercer Union gallery employees):

"The prosecution will have to prove that the car is dangerous, which we suspect will be difficult. In the last 50 years 200,000 Canadians have died in motor vehicle accidents. No pedal car deaths have been reported." (source)

Classic. I'll be watching this one.

[Peakster]

That's freaking awesome! I was actually thinking of doing the same thing (except with a fully home-made frame and body) at some point.

I'm going to be tuned into this situation too.

[TomO]

I had thought about doing that to a car when I was about 13. My vision involved removing the engine and replacing it with a shaft and pedal sets attached to a manual transmission. That way one could possibly achieve 30MPH for some city cruising.

[Peakster]

If the owner of the Buick wins in court (he might have to add things like working signal lamps, etc.), it will give me a huge boost of encouragement to make a pedal car out of a design I made a year ago:

[Peakster]

So... Whatever happened to this? I'm sure it could be easily argued that the former Buick is really a now quadricycle.

EDIT: Ah, just figured out that the court date is set in April. Talk about a long time!

[Gone4]

"The safety factor is uhh.... unsafe"

Things will always go wrong around people who are ignorant of a cause. This cop just didn't understand and wanted to cover his own ass by not letting them drive.

This sort of thing can be done I bet, if you just don't make it look like a normal car. Three wheels is probably the best place to start.

[Ryland]

a friend and I have talked about doing something very simaler, in wisconsin a bicycle is defined as having pedals, and atleast 2 wheels that are no less then 16" diamiter, if operating at night is must have a front and rear light visiable from I think 500 feet... that's about it, no limit on number of wheels, no limit on weight or size, it just has to have pedals.
A motorized bicycle is a bicycle that the power source that can be removed without affecting it's use as a bicycle, and not alowed to travle over 30mph while powered by motor or engine.
it's not untill you get in to the relm of motorcycles and mopeds that they put wheel limits of 3 wheels, or a weight limit of I think eitehr 1,200 or 1,500 pounds.
That car defently is a bicycle, and if he was going to get a ticket I would think the only reason would be if his city required it to be regestared as a bicycle...

[MetroMPG]

Victory for the pedal powered Buick!

Update (with video!): Pedal powered Buick driver beats court charge