Daily Radar: 05.21.09

What can you squeeze out of a throw-away item? That's what Google asked college students for its Juicy Ideas Competition. The competition winners--four guys from Appalachian State University, and one a good friend of mine--designed a bike with a frame made entirely out of plastic bottles. Their concept: "Bicycling is an economic and eco-friendly mode of transportation. Merge the two together and you create a self-sustainable business model that turns trash into treasure in the form of affordable, carbon-reducing community bikes." Check out their video (above) and website, and read more about the competition here. Congrats Andrew and team!
In more biking news, cyclists across the United States should check out RentABikeNow.com, an online bike reservation tool that allows bike-enthusiasts in 37 states to reserve bikes to their own specifications.
Everyone knows that Amsterdam is the city of bikes, but other European metropolises are making it easy to see the city on two wheels, too. Vienna's CityBike program allows visitors to rent bikes for as little as one euro (if you reserve long enough in advance), and the euro is even returned when you pick up your bike. Likewise, Milan's BikeMi program has nearly 90 bike stations around the city. If you rent a bike for less than 30 minutes, your rental is free (minus a one-time rental fee).
And in case you caught on to my theme, New Zealand is getting its first national cycleway. In the next three years, the government will spend some $50 million linking cities (and the hotels between them) with safe bicycle routes for both residents and tourists, in hopes to strengthen New Zealand's travel/tourism industry.

1 Comments

Erica Schlaikjer said:

Hi Jeanette!

Thanks for linking to my post on TheCityFix. Nice to see our boy Andrew doing cool things for the world, huh?

If you blog about sustainable transport in the future, be sure to check out www.EMBARQ.org. We have established Centers for Sustainable Transport in India, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey and the Andean Region. I can point you and your team to the right experts, if you're looking for quotes or anything.

Take care!
Erica

May 27, 2009 2:22 PM