I don’t know how much time Ron Richings – the Gleanings columnist for Momentum magazine – spends in front of his computer, researching and downloading interesting items on cycling, but if my inbox is any indication, he’s very thorough – or has a lot of great contacts.
Two recent items:
An interesting, mostly graphical, review of bike share/hire systems worldwide. (Once the centre arrow is clicked, it works like an automatic PowerPoint presentation.)
And there’s this – a new GPS based approach that may help reduce the number of stolen bikes.
Doubling as a working bike tail light, this low-key tracker is installed as part of the ‘Spylamp’ light.
Activated by pressing the on/off button for three seconds, the light flashes three times to confirm it is activated. The Spylamp has a vibration sensor, which is armed when activated, detecting movement in the event of a bike thief stealing the bike.
The device sends an SMS text message to the owners mobile to notify that the bike is moving, and then uploads its position to GPS Track This’ website every 20 seconds until the vibration has stopped. The website plots the course of the bike on a map, revealing the bike’s location.
Very cool. So explain to me why the cops can’t use this to set up a bike-bait program with the same effectiveness that they’ve used to discourage car theft.
This is a commendable effort, but I think that some distinctions are lost in translation – There is a big difference between a bike share system and renting a bike (ie bike hire).
Example: I am 99% certain that whatever has been annotated there for Colombia is either the bike borrowing program for (usually for school groups) run by the recreation department in Bogota, or a relatively recent firm that rents out bikes and does bike tours.
The former may now be branching out to borrowing to individuals during ciclovia, but there is no way it can be compared to say Bixi or Velib.
On interesting link round ups you might like this local-made vid (which beautifully shows what Bogota does exceptionally well – Ciclovia) http://www.flickr.com/photos/monicaeche/3894107001/in/pool-cicloviabogota . It really captures the range of activities (ie strolling, roller blading), and the sense of nonchalant local enjoyment.