French Urban Design Studio Hehe Creates Wacky Vehicles for Railroad Surfing

Before The High Line became “The High Line” it was an abandoned railroad track covered in vines and graffiti. It has become one of the most visited and welcome additions to NYC since it first opened. However, some of us do miss the graffiti the city washed away to keep the eyes of tourists free and innocent. Sure, if you look really closely, you can see an old COST and REVS roller, but if  you want to see anything done this decade, all you will get is art that looks like weird birdhouses.

For us who follow the art of the streets, some of NYC’ most creative graffiti pieces are on many of the cities abandoned and active railroad tracks. To venture into these tracks to see what these Picasso’s of the streets have created does come with consequences: the threat of being arrested, getting into a losing fight with a train, or worse, abducted by mole people (just kidding, maybe). So how can a family of four see what graffiti artists do under risk of being incarcerated?

Well thanks to the guys over at Pop-Up City, we may just have the answer for you. Hehe, a French urban design studio is working on a series of vehicles designed to transport urban explorers scared of the risks of urban exploration. Hehe’s goal is to open up these hidden urban museums, but to still keep the seclusion of this hidden world inside major cities.

The inspiration for these vehicles range from science-fiction to Wes Anderson. The most efficient of these vehicles is the Métronome (pictured at the top) a clear capsule vehicle, that can support up to four people riding at one time. The Radeau de Sauvetage, a vehicle that is part sailboat, part push trolley is something we can definitely the director of Moonrise Kingdom conjuring up. One vehicle the company worked on, was something that was very familiar to us. The Tapis Volant demonstrated on the tram network in Istanbul made the rounds of social media a few years back. What once thought was just another Internet hoax is now proven.

Whether we will see these unique vehicles on the tracks of NYC is unlikely. While the idea does sound awesome, we feel that the whole secrecy would not last very long. You will just have to settle on doing it illegally, or in a more safer legal fashion, follow urban explorers on Instagram.

If you want one of these to find the cities secret mole people, contact the author @ChrisLInoa