Two hundred people can commute…but how would Lenin do it?
Lee July 10th, 2008
The options shown in the poster are: By car, by bus, by light rail, and by bike. Very descriptive.
Archive for the 'Bicycles' Category
Bicycles in Paris
Lee March 22nd, 2008
I’m on a nine-day trip to France with students from my school (the benefits of sharing my classroom with a French teacher!), and we spent the last couple days in Paris. Paris is doing some good things to get more folks on bikes, including rental bikes all over town:
Rental bikes similar to but easier than City Carshare. You buy a 30 Euro ticket for the year, then you go to one of the many stations around the city and wave your card over the lock on a bike. You then have it for 30 minutes for free. After 30 minutes, it’s about one Euro for each hour, but it seems like most folks have figured out that you just ride it for 25, then swap for another bike, and it stays free.
I can’t find a link to the city’s info on it (and most of us probably can’t read French anyway), but here’s an NPR story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14429468
Also, lots of nice bike routes, both on streets, off streets, and on streets but segregated for bikes and buses only.
I uploaded photos to my gallery at http://trampleasure.net/lee/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=538
if you wants to look at them. I haven’t had the chance to add captions to most of them yet, but I hope to soon. (If you hit the “View Slideshow” link in the right menu, you can have them automatically rotate through at whatever pace and size you desire).
Bicycle maps on Google: Petition
Lee March 2nd, 2008
A great group of folks (GoogleMapsBikeThere.org) have developed an online petition to request that Google add “Bike There” check box to Google Maps.
If you haven’t explored Google Maps recently, it’s worth checking out. One of their options for directions is “Avoid highways” which is halfway to a bike friendly mapping experience. Google has also added a “Take Public Transit” option, and they are adding more transit agencies as you read this.
One of the options being suggested is a “Shortest Bike Route” and “Most Bike Friendly” options. The second option would take you on bike routes whenever reasonable (they’d have to figure out some way of deciding how much longer is acceptable for the bike friendly route: 10%, 20%, etc.) .
Take a moment to sign the petition: www.petitiononline.com/bikether/
Remember, having bike friendly mapping software not only helps bicyclists, but also lessens the number of bikes on busy roads and sidewalks, as well as getting some cars off the road when people discover how easy it is to bike.
