...and personal studies showed that your "behind" is sufficiently ventilated while sitting on a bike (or talking a stroll).

Evapourating sweat would add to the cooling effects of the breeze generated by a ride.

Generally, a bike does not have or need artificial air-conditioning.

Man! If I locked myself in a tin can for 3 hours a day I would of *course* have to wonder about how to model my micro-climate. I just do not see anyone retrofit his car with such a seat so my main point of criticism is that instead of trying to remove the cause they doctor around with the symptoms.

AC

You would still have to keep the windows up in order to save fuel. They proved on Myth Busters that cars actually got better mileage running the AC over having the windows down... which really makes me mad because I much prefer windows down..

Patrick,

re: Car window.

It really depends at what speed you are going. Air resistance does not increase linearly. A lower speed it can be more fuel efficient to have the window down, but not at highway speeds.

"It really depends at what speed you are going. Air resistance does not increase linearly. A lower speed it can be more fuel efficient to have the window down, but not at highway speeds."

Right. That's what they actually showed on "Myth Busters". I believe they tested two identical cars at 45 mph and 55 mph. At the lower speed, windows down used less fuel. At the higher speed, windows down used more fuel.

It's a multifactoral problem that's highly dependent on the weather and the individual vehicle, as well as how far open the windows are and which ones are open.

My vehicles are old West Coast cars without A/C, so I am always experimenting with windows to get the best airflow and least resistance. The cold of winter eats at my fuel economy far more than the minimal extra drag of opening windows in the summer.

"The cold of winter eats at my fuel economy far more than the minimal extra drag of opening windows in the summer."

That's a big factor, but there's also that (well, depending on how far North you are) you lose efficiency because of "winter gasoline".

when winter rolls around is it back to turning on the heat?

Actually, this news is more significant than mere rear-end ventilation jokes. It makes electric cars that much more viable, since accesories are a significant problem for EVs, and the worst of these is A/C.

Recaro makes aftermarket seats that have built-in ventilation.

@Alonso Perez

If you are the proud owner of an E-Car already I do see the step into the right direction as well as the need to lower your onboard power consumption.
My rant aimed at conventional cars and the idea that no one lacking the greener spirit would retrofit these seats to his petrol driven car.

AC

I wonder if the mesh seats being shown in some concept cars would work almost as well. Strikes me that with their lighter weight and open mesh design they have 2 benifits, remove weight from the vehicle and allow for increased driver comfort.

AC, our current infrastructure is built around the automobile and this cannot be changed overnight. It sounds like you don't have to drive a car to get to work and that's great. The rest of us who can't (no I can't take public transit because it doesn't go where I work) need better, more fuel efficent vehicles. These vented seats would help greatly.

"The rest of us who can't (no I can't take public transit because it doesn't go where I work)"

That's not exactly true, is it? You chose where to work and where you live, right? No one forced you.

It just means that you give certain things a higher value than the issue of being dependent on a car.

Nothing inherently wrong with that, but saying you "can't" implies that you don't (or didn't) have options.

I swear most of the people who talk like that have lived their whole life in a city where they could take a bus or bike everywhere. Yes I choose to live and work in places that require me to drive, many people do. Since that isn't likely to change I welcome things that will lessen the damage caused by our lifestyle choices. In todays job market do you really find you have that much choice of where you can work? Sorry but being a more recent convert to thinking green I'm now kinda stuck as I own my house and have a great job. The best I can do is make wise choices in vehicles. Maybe if I decide to change jobs in future I can walk/bike to work. Till then I keep on driving so I can support my family.

"I swear most of the people who talk like that have lived their whole life in a city where they could take a bus or bike everywhere."

Not me. I've lived in all kinds of places.

"In todays job market do you really find you have that much choice of where you can work?"

Me personally? Yes. But I can understand how people may feel their options are limited etc, but even if that's the case, taking the job as a fixed point, one still can make choices about where to live relative to that fixed point.

"Sorry but being a more recent convert to thinking green I'm now kinda stuck as I own my house and have a great job. The best I can do is make wise choices in vehicles. Maybe if I decide to change jobs in future I can walk/bike to work. Till then I keep on driving so I can support my family."

And as I said before, I'm not criticizing your choice, so you needn't be defensive. But I wanted to emphasize that you do have choices, contrary to what you claimed.

What you're describing is the standard choise set - "great job, great house". Well - that means more often than not you're now dependent on an automobile. And it has everything to do with what one desires in terms of their home, and how that relates to where one chooses to work. So offloading it to say "we don't have good non-car options" - well yeah. That's how it works when you want to have everything -- big house, big yard, quiet, all relatively cheap. Low density. Not gonna make most transit feasible.

I agree with what you said Joseph, here's the problem:

Many (most around the major cities) of the people that are car commuters grew up the the post WWII suburbs. It causes us to fall into a trap, we want what our parents had and so we fall into the same patern. I say trap because when, like myself, you realize how much of an impact your lifestyle has your too intrenched to make major changes in a timely fashion. At least I'm aware of the problems facing the planet and over time hope to reduce my "footprint" on it.

Your main point is very well taken low density, car centric, non-walkable developement is not sustainable. The good news is I read that mixed use, walkable developement is on the rise. The bad, much of the suburban housing stock is today is not that.

Regarding choices, I commute 55 miles each way to work. Why? I live in California, and got into the IT industry during a down turn in the market, jobs in less costly areas were fewer and more selective. California has a large job market for IT because of the large number of businesses that have headquarters here. Why does that matter? Centralization is a big thing in IT, and many large companies have their better paying possitions at corporate offices. Now as to the commute, I can't afford a reasonable house close to where I work, and certain living arrangements, ie. shared walls with inconsiderate neighbors, would have eventually led to a homocide. So my current situation was my choice, but seemed the best choice available at the time. With more experience, I am now looking at options that will both reduec my mortgage payments and my commute dramatically, as I am more marketable. So "choice" is relative.

"I can't afford a reasonable house"

Right - there's the term "reasonable", which is highly subjective. You have certain preferences for housing which outweigh the auto dependence and long commute. There's no "relativity" with respect to choices. You have them (and had them years ago) -- it's just that you have a hierarchy of things which are important to you, and you made your choices based on that.

I'm just saying that people confuse preferences and priorities with need or force.

Getting back to choices, you choose to work in IT and you choose to work in the region which you do. These are all choices that you willingly make. And those choices then frame other realms and what is and is not possible.

It's not like this is the Great Depression and we're all in the Grapes of Wrath -- loading up grandpa in a jalopy and hauling off to California to look for jobs picking grapes.

Again, I'm not criticizing anyone's decision to commute, be car dependent, etc -- it's just that it's disingenous to imply that one doesn't have "choices" with respect to those things.

Personally, I just prefer to have the window down when I go driving, helps me pretend I'm actually on my bike (i would cycle, but the distances i have to do and the times they have to be completed it, its not possible by human power).

The car actually has air con in, but I literally almost didn't consider that at all when buying (it's pre-owned, so i didn't choose the options). Think I used the system all of about five times, once when it was really hot (like one day last summer) and the interior was like an oven when i stepped inside, and a few times to clear chronic fogging on winters days - oddly that hasn't happened much this year.

Driving along with your windows shut and the aircon going 9 to the dozen is something I just can't fathom (very bizarre, and dare i say, typically american invention). Feeling the wind in your hair's great!

ha ha tree huggers i drive everywere in my 7000 pound suv with my 454 chevy big block getting 7-8 mpg ac on and windows down