Post Tagged with: "SmartBike"

Please do it for night time visibility sake … Put a GIF in your bike spokes

May 28, 2013 at 6:05 pm

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
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Washington DC Bike-Sharing Program is Growing Up!

March 23, 2009 at 5:59 pm

(Source: Examiner via Tree Hugger); Logo courtesy:  SmartBikeDc.com

Five-Fold Increase in Number of Bike Stations Time flies! It wasn’t so long ago that theWashington DC bike-sharing pilot project was born, and now it’s growing up: “By summer, the D.C. Department of Transportation will have expanded the current Smartbike system from 10 racks to 50 racks.” Total number of bikes should be about 500. Not quite Paris with its Vélib program (20,000 bicycles!), but a step in the right direction. 

washington dc bike sharing photo

According to the Examiner, WTOP is reporting that DC’s bike-sharing program Smartbike is slated for a significant expansion this summer. The D.C. Department of Transportation (DDOT) expects Smartbike to add about 40 racks, a move that will bring the total number of bikes in the program to about 500. As of January, more than 1,000 people subscribe to the program.
 
Vox Popoli, a Georgetown blog, is thrilled by the newsof the expansion. David Alpert of Greater Greater Washington has some thoughts on how the city might consider expanding the program even more (as well asan interactive Google map where users can suggest locations for future racks). Earlier this month, I posted the transcript from an exchange with Martina Schmidt, the manager of the DC bike-sharing program, during which we discussed vandalism and usage statistics. 
 Click here to read the entire article.
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