Stickers with embedded RFID barcodes

New Cultural Journeys could develop its own brand of stickers for bicycles and for urban furniture to track how far the NCJ project has reached into communities or along the coast. By embedding RFID tags into the stickers - a scanning device such as a mobile phone could pick up information from each tag site.

Stickers or bicycle transfers could be designed by participants themselves to decorate their bikes or other urban wear! NCJ stickers are a fun way to brand a project and to monitor the way the project is valued by the people taken part!!

NCJ Stickers can also be used to promote the cycling sport in numerous ways! The design can brand the project as well as the count down to the Olympics 2012 and beyond!

Invader :: Street art play & cultural mapping

Invader is an artist who uses the city as his canvas to place mosaic characters of the computer game SPACE INVADERS throughout the city. This has been done in cities across the world, with maps and images of these mosaics available online. There are many websites where the public have documented these INVADERS themselves and how many times there been seen to build on the artist's map.

Creating a cycling route along the Fylde coast, around Morecambe, throughout the city of Lancaster and Preston; new street art, sound scapes or outdoors games could become part of a cultural mapping environment where people cycle from A-B in search of new art installations.

To see some of the images captured by the public of Invaders in various cities go to:
BIG ART MOB

Research -- Bike Sharing

Research provided by Bike Sharing Solutions

• A Virtuous Cycle: Bicycling in D.C.
• Bicing Watch blog
• Bicycles as Public-individual Transport - European Developments
• Cyclocity - A revoluntionary public transport system accessible to all
• Fahrradverleih - Wikipedia (in German)
• Family Tree of Bicycle Programs - DeMaio - 2/09
• History of Bike-sharing - Carbusters - DeMaio - 11/08
• Institute for Transportation & Development Policy - Bike Sharing Sweeps Paris Off Its Feet
• Internation Bicycle Fund Listing of Bike-sharing Programs
• La Lettre Velib' - May 2008 (translated from French)
• NICHES - New Seamless Mobility Services: Public Bicycles
• Optimization of Resource Distribution in the George Mason University Parking System
• Portsmouth Bikeabout
• Smart Bicycles in an Urban Area: Evaluation of a Pilot Scheme in London
• Smart Bikes: Public Transportation for the 21st Century
• SpiCycles - Bike Sharing In Europe
• Sustainable Transport: Paris Bike sharing
• Velib et Moi - Le Blog (in French)
• Vélib’ à Paris
• Vélo’v - A Personal Mobility Service (in French)
• Vélo’v Newsletter Archives (in French)
• Wikipedia - Community Bicycle Programs
• Will Smart Bikes Succeed as Public Transportation in the United States?
• World City Bike Collaborative: 2008/9
• World City Bike Yahoo! Group

Bike Sharing Solutions :: Cyclocity

How can Lancashire raise the bar to provide 4th generation bike sharing facilities in the future?

1) The first generation of bike sharing began in 1967 in Amsterdam!! Normal bikes without locks simply painted white where provided for public use - as you can imagine, things did not go as planned as some people abused the system.

2) In the late 1990's, the second generation of bike sharing was launched in Copenhagen, Denmark. These bikes were specially designed to be picked up and returned at specific locations (racks) with a coin deposit (like super market trolley).

3) The third generation of sharing bikes uses electronic locking racks, or bike locks, chip cards, mobile phones and internet. These new systems 'know' who uses the bikes and people can be tracked. In 2007 Paris started Velib, ran by advertisement company JCDecaux. The success of Velib generated enormous interest in bike sharing around the world...

There are a variety of bike sharing options and a lot of case studies to learn from all the existing systems to choose the best model to work in Lancashire! Here are a few different systems:

• Clear Channel: Barcelona, Washington DC, ....They provide a turn-key program in 13 European cities and recently started its first American program, the one in Washington.
• JC Decaux: Paris, Lyon, ...
• Call a Bike: Berlin, ...
• Next Bike: Germany
• OV-fiets (Public Transport Bike): Netherlands

Call a Bike

Call a Bike is a bike hire system run by Deutsche Bahn in several German cities, which uses a system of authentication codes to automatically lock and unlock bikes.


To hire
Customer calls the telephone number given on the bike which includes the bike's ID and gets by voice the 4 digit opening code, which he then types onto the bike's touch screen to unlock it

To return
Lock the bike to a fixed object, and select "return bike" from the bike's touchscreen. A code will be generated which then has to be telephoned to the control centre, as proof that the bike was locked. As well one has to give the exact street names of the cross roads, which has to be within the permitted town area.

The Technology involved
Comprised of an electronic wheel lock and a cable lock, all controlled by embedded microcontroller with touchscreen LCD display. A set lock/unlock codes are unique to each bike and stored in memory.

re:blogged from Wikipedia

Graffiti Research Lab :: LED Throwies

LED Throwies are developed by the Graffiti Research Lab part of the Eyebeam R&D OpenLab.

LED Throwies can add color to any ferromagnetic surface in your neighborhood. LED are a fun and inexpensive way to get playful with your environment. Objects or surfaces can be painted with magnetic paint to which Throwies can attach.

A Throwie consists of a lithium battery, a 10mm diffused LED and a rare-earth magnet taped together. Throw it up high and in quantity to impress your friends and city officials.

SKYRIDE A New Journey Through Manchester

On Sunday 2 August 2009 get your bike and enjoy a cycle through a traffic free Manchester! Sky in partnership with British Cycling and Manchester City Council created a 11.5K city centre route through the city.

Explore places such as:

• Chinatown
• Albert Square
  
• Sportcity
  
• the Velodrome
  

Biking Dynasty ::: Looking to 2012!!

The YouTube online-TV soap that features video taken from the renown sporting dynasty: The Athertons. The video series gives a behind the scenes view of three of the most successful cycling siblings in Downhill Mountain Biking, what makes them tick and what motivates them and the various races....

NY Bicycle Film Festival

The New York Bicycle Film Festival took place in June, 2009. Its remit is celebrating the bicycle!! The idea is to engage with the lifestyle of cycling through art, film, music and performance and to advocate the bike as formidable transport device!

The programme is filled with action-based film footage shot by a variety of cycle enthusiast:

1) DRAG RACE NYC
City bike race between cars (caution this is risky business)



2) LONDON CALLING
Mad Skills - London's finest doing the High Tech Weave (HTW) in this high speed alleycat:

Cool Bike Design for 2012

Rider Spoke: Urban explorations

"Rider Spoke is a work for cyclists combining theatre with game play and state of the art technology."

Rider Spoke is an artwork by Blast Theory investigating how games and emergent communication technologies can bring together new social encounters both on and offline.

The work invites people to cycle through the city in search of interesting, secluded places and to record a short message there. Equipped with a handheld mobile phone people leave messages but also cycle in search of other peoples hidden messages.

Songbike

"Come out for a ride + make a bicycle soundscape"

Songbike is a sound-based project by artist; Kelly Andres. Installed on a bike, is a mobile sound lab, which records and automatically uploads audio to a website. Songbike connects people with shared interest in community and aurality; allowing them to self author and self-produced content and social interaction.