If you are one of the last minute shoppers who is yet to buy a holiday present for your children (or for someone you dearly love), I’d recommend getting them a bicycle. Why? A bike not only helps them stay active and lead a healthy life but also helps them learn to be independent (and not depend on you to get around to and from school) and stay focused in their studies.  Besides the provocative title for this post (and the fact that I’m writing this even though I’m a parent, at least yet), there must be some truth to the fact that we might be transporting our children, all caged up in automobiles all the time instead of setting them free on a bicycle (or walking).  Well, at least that’s what these children in Netherlands,  Belgium, France and Britain are hinting at in this video produced by Sustrans, a UK based non-profit organization that promotes pedestrian, bike and public transportation options.

Watching this video promoted me to do a quick comparison of  the academic performance (Mean score in PISA 2012) of children from these countries (I know it is a crude measure but still worthy of pointing out that).  Not to be surprised, they all fared well above our good ol’ USA (and before you ask we are far behind the chart-topping Asian giants China, Japan and Korea): 

Of course, I didn’t get enough time on hand to compare the health indices of these countries but I have no doubt that we might be in for some shocking results, given the ungodly levels of childhood obesity rates we currently have in the United States. I’ll reserve that angle for exploring on another rainy/snowy day. If every school district in the U.S. spent a tiny fraction of its budget on providing/building bike lanes and bike infrastructure, we may soon see a tremendous change in the way our kids learn/live. It may be the perfect antidote for a nation that has ungodly levels of childhood obesity.  Mind you, the US tops every country on Earth when it comes to educational spending (roughly $68.1Billion in 2012, (over 7 % of GDP), which is ~$15,171 on every young person in the system) Here are some alarming data nuggets from the Center for Disease Control:

• Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years.
• The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 18% in 2010. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12–19 years who were obese increased from 5% to 18% over the same period.
• In 2010, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.
• Obese youth are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure. In a population-based sample of 5- to 17-year-olds, 70% of obese youth had at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

More here.  Encouraging more children to take up cycling requires that we provide good infrastructure support, which is sorely lacking in many towns and cities across America.  We have to work, as a community and nudge our decision-makers to spend on these low-cost measures (i.e.,bike lanes) and make our cities bike and pedestrian friendly. At least it is worth exploring, from a scientific perspective, how biking (and walking) helps improve the quality of life for our children (in academic and otherwise).

The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) recently launched the Divvy bikeshare program, which is operated by Alta Bicycle Share.  The program is contract-operated and requires dedicated staff to actively manage the program and administer the contract.  The Program Director (bike share manager) will supervise the contractor operating the bicycle sharing program and manage the day-to-day operations of Divvy for CDOT.

For consideration, all applications must be submitted electronically through the City’s Human Resources system (http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dhr.html).  Paper or other submissions will not be reviewed.  Please note that the deadline for applications is December 18^th so please share this ASAP. See full announcement below.

[gview file=”http://www.transportgooru.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Program-Director-posting.pdf” width=”590px”]

That’s a bit of surprise.. One would expect a city like Portland to top this list..Nonetheless, it is good to see the number of cities expanding their biking infrastructure.

San Francisco is the most bike-friendly city in the United States. With 5.6 miles of dedicated bike lanes, multiuse bike paths and signed bike routes per square mile (263 miles in total), the Californian metropolis offers the best biking infrastructure in the country.

You will find more statistics at Statista

Via Momentum Mag

Have you been in Washington, DC and New York City recently? These two cities, along with a growing number of other American cities, offer a great bikesharing programs. A good majority of the users of these systems are women, who have fondly embraced cycling (not just as a workout but also for many other reasons) and the numbers are growing rapidly as the popularity of the bikesharing continues to expand across the country.

A recent report from League of American Bicyclists shows a growing a trend seen on streets nationwide: Women are changing the face of bicycling, and bicycling is transforming the lives of women. Momentum Mag, in conjunction with League of American Bicyclists, has put together an infographic that highlights 10 common myths about women cycling, which is filled with all kinds of interesting statistics.  Check it out

Image Courtesy: Momentum Mag

Click here to download the high-resolution version.

While we are at it, let me also share the Women on a Roll report, which serves as the basis for this infograph.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is seeking a seasoned, effective organizer to work on expanding bicycling and bicycling infrastructure in San Francisco. If you are passionate about bicycling, and passionate about increasing the diversity of bicycling, this is your chance to help improve the lives of huge numbers of San Franciscans.

• Hours: Full time. Hours may be flexible. Position will entail some work on weeknights and weekends, in order to attend community meetings and events.
• Reports to: Deputy Director

You will work with all parts of the organization, members and volunteers to develop and win support for key bicycling infrastructure improvements (bikeways, neighborhood greenways, spot improvements, paving, etc). This work will entail working closely with community groups, businesses and elected officials to develop grassroots and grasstops support for new and improved biking infrastructure. You will also be responsible for helping create and support member-led campaigns.

JOB COMPONENTS

You should be comfortable with street-level organizing as well as grasstops outreach. Responsibilities may include, but will not be limited to:

• Campaign strategy and outreach for campaigns to build more, better bikeways throughout the city in line with our Connecting the City initiative.
• Organizing on the street and other forms of grassroots outreach.
• Developing and supporting member-led campaigns.
• Working with city agencies and elected officials to advance campaigns.
• Connect with new and deepen existing relationships with community partners.
• Representing the organization at public meetings and community meetings.
• Communicating two-way with members about our work at all steps in the campaign process.
• Hiring and managing a team of diverse interns.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Deep commitment to the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition mission.
• Fluency in a Chinese language or Spanish strongly encouraged.
• At least two years of experience as an organizer.
• Strong interpersonal and relational skills.
• Ability to take initiative and lead advocacy efforts within the organization.
• Demonstrated track record of successful project planning, management, base-building and strategy implementation.
• Ability to work individually and as part of a team.
• Excellent communicator with a wide variety of types of audiences.
• Experience sourcing and managing a diverse cohort of interns and volunteers.
• Desire and ability to implement systems that will allow your work to scale quickly and significantly to be able to reach more people.

SALARY AND BENEFITS

Salary is to be determined, depending upon experience. This package includes strong benefits.

HOW TO APPLY

Send a compelling cover letter and resume to Kit Hodge, Deputy Director, at kit [at] sfbike DOT org. Please include “Community Organizer Candidate, YOUR NAME” in the subject line, and be sure to mention where you saw the job advertised. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until the position is filled. People of color and women are strongly encouraged to apply.

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, age, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political orientation.

http://www.sfbike.org/?jobs_comm

Related articles

• Job Alert – SF Bicycle Coalition
• San Francisco Cyclist to Get Probation, Community Service in Pedestrian Death
• In Depth: SF Bicycle Coalition Looks To Improve On City’s Bike Usage
• Bay Area Bike Share to Launch Next Month

Here is some pretty cool hand drawn and animated stuff (from fellow Redditor NathanwPyle) to gently remind fellow bicyclists in NYC about a few things to do and watch out for while on the street riding a bike.  Oh, and some of these etiquettes are universal, not just applicable to NYC.  When you finish scrolling through the pics. remember to check out Nathan Pyle’s website too for more goodness.

Source: NathanwPyle via Imgur

This is a laugh riot.. love the subtle jabs (and not so subtle at times) from Jon Stewart and his crew.. Apparently the pooer sections of the city seem to be more in love with the system than the upscale ones (i.e., uppity parts)

Despite the little negative publicity often encountered, the bike share system in NYC seems to be growing at a record pace. Here is a graphic from fellow Twitterati and NYC-er, Stephen Miller, that tells you how much the city loves the shiny blue bikes.

NYC’s CitiBike – Growth in Membership and Usage

Related articles

• Opinion:Rabinowitz Responds to the Bike Lobby
• “The Daily Show” on Citi Bike: “Doesn’t Anybody Have a Real Objection?”

This is bat s**t crazy..Whew! French daredevil, Francois Gissy, set a new speed record on a bike – an astonishing 163mph, besting his own previous record of 150mph set in 2002. How did he do it – by strapping a hydrogen peroxide powered rocket to it!  Want to know something more crazier – it is still not the fastest bicycle speed record. While Gissy broke the record for rocket-powered bikes, he was still 4 MPH off the fastest cycling speed of 167 MPH that Dutch cyclist Fred Rompelberg set in 1995 while riding in a slipstream, sans rocket! Clearly, my life is quite boring. Read more here.

Image courtesy: Discovery News

Apart from the ability to show how cool you are, this new innovation from Monkey Light Pros (currently in Kickstarter), will make you  quite visible to motorists and other road users during the night time.. That said, I’m really not looking forward to the possibility of too many Nyan cats flooding our city streets..Hey, as long as it saves lives and gives you a reason to get on the bike, I’m all for it :)

Image via Gizmodo

Gadget/tech stuff blog Gizmodo offers the following details:

• It utilizes a quartet of LED-impregnated bars that fit along the the spokes inside of your wheel. As the wheel spins, the bars rotate and generate the 256-color animated GIFs by exploiting the persistence of vision effect.
• Each unit weighs just 500 grams and fits on a 26 to 29 inch rim using the standard 32 or 36 spoke pattern.
• The system can load up to 1000 frames in a variety of media formats (JPG, GIF, PNG, AVI, MPEG, MOV, QT, FLV) onto a web-based playlist for display (think about blitzing around the town with a different GIF every day! AWESOME!)
• Users can also download the Mac/Linux API to create custom light shows though the system comes preloaded with 10 animations.
• The integrated 7000mAh Li-ion battery supplies 3 – 8 hours of power at full brightness (up to 48 hours on lower settings).
• Cost: a single light system with a $700 and a pair for $1400. They’ll retail for $895 a pop if and when the program funds

Image courtesy: saferoutespartnership.org

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership (National Partnership) is seeking a professional and detail-oriented candidate with experience in bicycle and pedestrian advocacy or policy to join the National Partnership as the Greater Washington DC Active Transportation Fellow. This is a temporary, contract position.

The Active Transportation Fellow will work with the Regional Network Manager and Greater Washington DC Regional Policy Manager to advocate for improved transportation funding allocations and policies for Safe Routes to School, Complete Streets and walking and bicycling. Please review the scope of work for the position for detailed information and application instructions.

Required qualifications for the Greater Washington DC Active Transportation Policy Fellow include: demonstrated experience in social media; student work or personal work in bicycle and pedestrian advocacy or policy; knowledge of Safe Routes to School and/or Complete Streets; ability to write case studies, participate in work groups and present to a variety of audiences; self-starter; detail-oriented; proficient with social media such as Twitter, Facebook and WordPress, PCs and with MS Office software. The successful candidate will work from their home office with their own personal computer, internet access and telephone. Candidate must be able to attend meetings throughout the region, some of which are not Metro accessible.

The final deadline for applications is Wednesday, April 24, 2013 by 12:00 p.m. ET.  Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, so candidates are encouraged to apply early.  Telephone inquiries are not accepted.

We look forward to hearing from qualified candidates interested in joining our dynamic, visionary and growing non-profit.

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership was founded in 2005 and is a network of more than 600 organizations. The National Partnership mission is to advocate for safe walking and bicycling to and from schools, and in daily life, to improve the health and well-being of America’s children and to foster the creation of livable, sustainable communities.  The Safe Routes to School National Partnership is hosted by the nonprofit Bikes Belong Foundation which is an equal opportunity employer.