Street Sweepers

 

The lady in the top picture is a street sweeper in Beijing in July 1999.  She is working on a street in front of a construction site.  When she is finished with this area, she will put the dirt inside her bike-truck to haul it away (bottom picture).  Human street sweepers are a common site in urban China.

 

Questions

1. Why is the woman wearing an orange vest when she is sweeping, but not when she is riding her bike-truck?
2. How much energy does she use and pollution does she generate to do her job compared to an American gasoline/diesel powered street sweeper.
3. Unemployment is a major problem in China.  Estimate how many human street sweepers would it take to do the same amount of work one American gasoline/diesel street sweeper could do in one day?
4. What are some advantages of using human street sweepers?
5. What are some disadvantages?