Magiting Project: Bamboo Taxis

Today is Araw ng Kagitingan and one magiting Filipino named Rustico Balderian had a great idea.

Instead of using jeepneys and small trikes, why not make a bamboo commuter and let it be powered by coconut biodiesel. To complete the exotic look, it is covered with woven mat (banig).

Some concerns though…

• I just hope it can still run and go out when it’s raining.
• The engine room will definitely go hot hot hot! It is possible that the outer banig and the bamboo framing inside will be exposed to heat. Heat + Fuel 1 (coco diesel) + Fuel 2 (bamboo & banig) + Oxygen (lots of it especially when the taxi is moving) = FIRE.
• Using cocodiesel fuel, would you actually look for sapin-sapin, kunchinta and kalamay after you smell what could be an appetizing exhaust flavah.

Rustico Balderian, municipal mayor decided to design and build a vehicle that would be a better mode of transport.  Two bamboo cabs were built, ECO1 and ECO2.  ECO1 seats 20 people including the driver and runs for 8 hours on one gallon of coconut biodiesel fuel.  ECO2 is a smaller cab that seats 8 people and even has a stereo.  ECO2 also runs for 8 hours on the coconut biodiesel fuel.  Both cabs are covered with banig, the traditional woven mat of the Philippines so they are colorful as well as practical.

Compared to the steel-chassised cars and bikes used, the bamboo cars definitely rate higher in those areas:

• The bamboo cars run on 100% coconut biodiesel.
• 90% of the bamboo car is made from bamboo
• Bamboo is indigenous to the area and is a common building material in the Philippines and other Asian countries.  Not only does that put the means of production into the hands of the local villages but it also cuts down on the transport of goods that wastes gas and time.
• Being such a fast-growing plant, bamboo is highly renewable making mass production easier.
• Bamboo is surprisingly strong for a grass and has a higher tensile strength than steel.  When woven, the bamboo sheets can easily replace steel panels.
• Bamboo does not require a great deal of processing for it to be incorporated into designs while it take five tons of ore to make 1 ton of steel plate.
• Not only does the bamboo taxi keep toxic emissions out of the environment, but growing bamboo for its production releases more oxygen.  Bamboo is a carbon neutral plant that rapidly takes in carbon dioxide in the air and converts it to oxygen.