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The Best Thing I’ve Seen Today

A motorcycle that tows… cars. Perfect for crowded city streets and gridlocked highways, easier on city budgets, lower emissions, etc. Apparently this comes via Sweden, though the version here is shown in Japan. One issue, at least for highways: Where does the driver of the disabled car go?

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 3:17 pm and is filed under Etc.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “The Best Thing I’ve Seen Today”

  1. Botswana Meat Commission FC Says:
    March 1st, 2010 at 4:34 pm

    Brilliant!

    Though splitting lanes in the U.S. = illegal everywhere but California.

  2. Rasmus Jensen Says:
    March 1st, 2010 at 6:29 pm

    The amount of Volvo’s, the other cars, the side of the road they are driving in, the environment, the numberplates and the web address in the end (.se) tells me that this is from Sweden, and the reason for the title containing Japanese would be the use of a Japanese motorcycle to tow the cars :)

    But as you yourself say, it is a good idea.

    You point out that a disabled driver would have to go somewhere? Why not just let the driver stay in the car? I might have spotted a driver inside the vehicle being towed in some of the videoclips.

    Rasmus Jensen

  3. Josh R Says:
    March 2nd, 2010 at 8:29 am

    It’s a very clever idea, well suited to getting to a disabled car through gridlock more quickly then a conventional tow truck. I would think the driver could ride in the car long enough to get to a service station, and as to lane splitting, an exception for emergency vehicles traveling to the scene of a break down to clear the road is a no-brainer.

  4. Scott Says:
    March 2nd, 2010 at 9:42 am

    I had the same thought as another commenter: the driver just stays in the disabled car.

    Also, that motorcycle must have some massive brakes.

  5. njkayaker Says:
    March 3rd, 2010 at 2:37 pm

    “Though splitting lanes in the U.S. = illegal everywhere but California.”

    It’s legal in Texas (explicitly and recently). The California law doesn’t explicitly allow it (and the laws appear to implicitly disallow it). It would seem that “lane splitting” is legal in California by custom.

  6. Andrew L Says:
    March 9th, 2010 at 9:47 am

    This would be ideal for places like the Lincoln Tunnel.

    On this past Saturday (March 6) at 5pm, there was an unusual 20 minute delay (usually at that time there is none) due to a stalled vehicle in the right lane of the south tunnel. There was no sign warning of this. They have no VMS signs! No sign of police activity at either the NJ or Manhattan end, from where they can reverse into the tunnel with some neat tow trucks that can maneuver and turn around in the 2 lanes available. If the queue was already 20 minutes long, the stalled car must have been in there quite some time.

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How We Drive is the companion blog to Tom Vanderbilt’s New York Times bestselling book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), published by Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and Canada, Penguin in the U.K, and in languages other than English by a number of other fine publishers worldwide.

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