London Garden's Trippy, Foldable Electric Bike Concept

The rest of the world appears to be warming up to bicycle commuting a lot more than we are, going as far as to develop extra traffic lanes designated solely for two wheeled pedalers.

While I know of some U.S. cities, such as Ft. Collins and Boulder (both in Colorado), that have had ample lanes specifically designed for bikers, it is far more common to stumble on this type of arrangement abroad.

One such example is London Garden, a new concept car free zone in downtown London that accomodates just two modes of transportation -- bicycle riders and buses (oh...and presumably the random hoofer, too).

What steps the cool factor up several notches is that the stored energy can be used as a form of monetary currency to pay for a bus ride within London Garden's transportation system.

I'm sure that there are plenty of people who are die-hard enough about cycling to pass on bus transportation altogether, even if it can literally slice their commute in half.

For the rest of us, though, this proposed system seems rather handy...biking to the bus (particularly on balmy, perspiration-inducing days) sounds like a huge plus in my book.

The futuristic London Garden foldable electric bicycle even folds up into a neat and tidy package so that it can be easily stored under a bus seat and it also fits nicely into one of the countless solar/wind harnessing bike stands surrounding bus stops in the vicinity.

Any stored energy that is not used as "credit" for free bus rides will be stored in batteries and used to power the London Garden network system, which is the Universal Electricity Network of this concept.