Month: February 2008

Persuade Google To Map Bike Routes

Persuade Google To Map Bike Routes:

We are asking Google Maps to incorporate a bike travel as an equal option  to automotive and bus transportation.
This would be very cool and useful, especially with the new tracing algorithms they have recently implemented.
Pass it around to all the cyclists you know.  Google responds quite well to these things.
http://www.petitiononline.com/bikether/petition.html

[Cool. Ya’ll go!]
Source: the Practical Pedal Blog

Bike rack instructional video brings the groove

Bike rack instructional video brings the groove: TARC raps on bike rack
Louisville’s TARC employees hope a new rap video will teach bus riders how to use the bike racks that have been installed on many city buses, according to an agency spokeswoman.

The video, which features TARC employees singing and dancing, has only been released online, and there are no plans to pay for television advertising spots, said Nina Walfoort, a TARC spokeswoman. [As a multimodal commuter myself… it’s really nice to the folks in the transit agencies getting involved. I’d love to see a video like this produced by New York’s Finest. I guess I should add that the video is awful form an intructional standpoint, never clearly showing you all the steps required, but then I’d guess that it’s not all that hard to figure out, even under the pressure of waiting bus.]
Source: Bike Commute Tips Blog

A year before the tragedy, Austin Miller wrote “Please Do Not Run Me Over”

A year before the tragedy, Austin Miller wrote “Please Do Not Run Me Over”: A year before a tragic fate befell Austin Miller, the 15 year-old Beaverton student wrote an opinion article on bike safety for his school newspaper titled, “Please Do Not Run Me Over.”

Writing under the pseudonym “Charlie Elsewhere”, the article (full text below) was published in The Savant, the school newspaper at the Art and Communication Magnet Academy in Beaverton, where Miller was a sophomore.

Reading through it, I had mixed emotions. As a father, I found it chilling and immensely sad. As a bike advocate, I found it frustrating. [It is to weep.]

City’s two-wheel transformation

City’s two-wheel transformation | UK news | The Guardian: Planners hope the changes will encourage a “critical mass” of cyclists to use the routes, creating a safe and accessible environment as well as cutting congestion and pollution across London. “We are aiming to make cycling part of public transport and if we can get even 5% of people out of their cars, off the tubes and buses and on to bikes it will mean 1.7m cycle trips in London every day,” said Mark Watts, transport adviser to the mayor. [London is so far ahead of New York right now. So far.]

We’re getting our Mojo on…

The first of the Clif Mojo bars have been delivered for the Great Mojo bar Taste Test. More deliveries soon! Testers, start your buds.

The instant hit in my household was the new dipped peanut butter and jelly flavor Mojo bar. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that peanut butter and jelly is one of the great flavor combinations of all time. In fact, one could argue that it should be elevated to an essential nutrient combination that absolutely no one should live without. I here so nominate it as such. Sadly, I live for long periods of time without enjoying the essence of life that is PB&J because in sandwich form it packs an awful lot of stuff (calories, grams of this and that) into a fairly dense package. Not a good general choice for me. So once in a great while, as a treat, an indulgence, a gustatory extremism of the highest caliber, a lark even, I break out this extremely important flavor combination and have at it.

Now, however, courtesy of the new dipped Mojo bar, this flavor combo is far more available to me. I can budget for it far more simply. I can eat half a bar, and still get a huge thrill. It’s nirvana in a small package.

Wow, you’re thinking, the Great Mojo bar Taste Test is over! Nah. I said it was a hit. Not the winner. Possibly not even my favorite, never mind the favorite of the other participants. So more Mojo coming soon…

Missing: Urban Policy in the Presidential Campaign

Missing: Urban Policy in the Presidential Campaign: It’s not a new problem. For more than a generation, presidential aspirants have mostly resisted acknowledging the importance of the cities’ well being. Blame the front-loading of the primary season with rural states, or electoral and legislative systems that give disproportionate weight to sparsely populated states. Whatever the reason, it is shortsighted. According to Bruce Katz, co-author of a Brookings Institution study promoting investment in metropolitan areas, the largest 100 cities and their surrounding communities are home to 65 percent of the nation’s population and account for about 75 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. [Here’s a chance for a candidate to really separate themselves.]
Source: StreetsBlog

The Great Mojo bar Taste Test!

So a while back I mentioned that I came across new flavors of Mojo bar, one of my favorite treats, and couldn’t believe that there was no information on the web, and no adverts that I had seen about the new flavors. C’mon! In this day and age?

So I’m now organizing The Great Mojo bar Taste Test. They’ve sent me a box of each flavor including the new ones, and I’m in the midst of distributing the stuff to my friends who blog and ride and eat energy bars, with a request that they in turn write about their likes and dislikes, comments, notes, what-have-you. Ya know, blog stuff.

If you think you should be included in the Great Mojo bar Taste Test feel free to write me daniel at circumtech dot com and we’ll discuss it.

More as I think of it!