If you ask us, the best way to commute is to use bicycles. However, there a number of concerns that need to be attended to before this can be achieved. To ride a bicycle to work everyday presents the biggest issue of the bike getting stolen. Now that is the reason why there is a lot of fuss about bike locks and we are witnessing new locks being introduced every now and then. However, perhaps, the answer lies in designing a bike that acts as its own lock. That is what the Yerka Project aims at doing.
The project was started by three engineering students from Chile who came up with the idea to make the lock an integral part of the bike itself. What they thought was to come up with a lock that upon being broken would inherently damage the bike as well and render it somewhat useless. Therefore, any criminal would avoid doing this.
So the frame is basically a lock; the frame’s down tube can be opened out in order to make it position around a solid object, lamp post perhaps, and the saddle and the post are then inserted through the open ends in order to complete the lock. The attempts to steal the bike would result in damaging the frame and hence, shall render the bike useless. The whole process of locking takes only about 20 seconds.
As of now, the project is only a prototype and the students behind it are looking for people who would be willing to help them in converting this idea into reality. There is no release date or pricing whatsoever as of now. 