Pedal-Powered "Flintstones" Car Stopped By Cops. (YouTube Vid) This guy I went to school with recently got stopped by cops on a Toronto street because the car they were driving had no floor, no engine, just four seats and bicycle cranks. They could only get up to 15 km.
'Flintstone Car' Driver Off The Hook For Ticket
Thursday April 3, 2008
CityNews.ca Staff
It was a work of art that wound up getting a traffic ticket.
To understand that statement, you have to go back to October 2007, when an odd looking Buick Regal made its maiden voyage around the streets of Toronto. Cops eventually flagged it down because the decrepit and rusted out hunk of junk was only going 15 kilometres an hour down a city street, impeding traffic.
But when P.C. Derek Walsh stopped the car and looked inside, he couldn't believe his eyes. The vehicle had no floor, no engine, and used candles for headlights. "Not even close to being legal," the officer noted in a moment caught on video, as he wrote out the ticket.
What made this strange contraption run at all? Its creators had turned it into a giant bicycle with at least four people inside pedaling away with all their might, trying - and ultimately failing - to keep up the furious 15k.
The unusual pedal pusher was created by Montreal artist Michel de Broin to make a statement about consumption. Most agree it made its point. "I think it's an absurdist gesture to take an enormous luxury car and convert it into a bicycle rather than a small compact," admits Dave Dyment of the Mercer Union Art Gallery.
Now some six months later, Dean Baldwin, the man responsible for the impromptu test drive, walked into traffic court in the city - leaving the altered "car" parked on the street - and prepared to fight the fine.
Not long after, the jubilant defendant came out a winner. The judge dropped the charge, not because he liked the concept but because the vehicle wasn't actually a car at all. Therefore the specific charge of operating an unsafe vehicle didn't legally apply.
"The justice didn't buy that so that's why it was thrown out," explains Terry Fox, Baldwin's legal advisor.
That did little to placate an apparently ticked off Walsh, who appeared in court to try to bolster his charge. "I thought it was unsafe," he demurs.
So will Baldwin continue to drive the experimental whatever-it-is? Maybe. "I'm thinking it's a really nice day so maybe we might go for a drive," he quips.
Which is exactly what Dean did, taking one last victory lap across the city. But if you haven't seen him put his pedal through this metal, you may not get another chance. He figures it's the last time he'll be making the rounds in the thing on Toronto streets.
Because if he can't hit his own brakes, he probably shouldn't expect any breaks from the cops, either.
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posted by saladin at 12:41 PM on May 7, 2008 [3 favorites]