B-cycle

http://www.bcycle.com

B-cycle is the zero-hassle, zero-emissions way to get around town. It’s a bike sharing program that meets the transportation, health, and environmental needs of our communities. One that adapts to any size city, corporation or campus. It’s wind in your hair, air in your lungs and bugs in your teeth. It’s free and spontaneous but also organized and practical.

B-cycle is the only “next”-generation bike-share program. Integrated data tracking will automatically capture information such as your distance traveled, equivalent calories burned and carbon offset after each ride. It will then upload this data to your personal user profile on Bcycle.com. B-cycle is the future of bike sharing, and it’s available to your city now.

B-cycle is a collaboration between three major players in three industries.

• Humana
• Trek Bicycle Corporation
• Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Cultural change. B-cycle will change the way you get around. And that will change our communities. Visit Bcycle.com to see the video and find out how to get a B-cycle system in your city. (read less)

B-cycle is the zero-hassle, zero-emissions way to get around town. It’s a bike sharing program that meets the transportation, health, and environmental needs of our communities. One that adapts to any size city, corporation or campus. It’s wind in your hair, air in your lungs and bugs in your teeth. It’s free and spontaneous but also organized and practical.

B-cycle is the only “next”-generation bike-share program. Integrated data tracking will automatically capture information such as your… (read more)

Mission:

To create simple, sustainable, customized bike sharing systems that empower individuals and communities to be more healthy and have more fun in their daily goings.

Products:

Denver B-cycle is our the first large-scale system for B-cycle, to be employed in Denver starting April 22nd, 2010.

Obama Bicycle Policy Wins Love From Cyclists, Scorn From Trucking Industry

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a weekend bicyclist, might consider keeping his head down and his helmet on. A backlash is brewing over his new bicycling policy.

LaHood says the government is going to give bicycling – and walking, too – the same importance as automobiles in transportation planning and the selection of projects for federal money. The former Republican congressman quietly announced the “sea change” in transportation policy last month.

“This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized,” he wrote in his government blog.

Not so fast, say some conservatives and industries dependent on trucking. A manufacturers’ blog called the policy “nonsensical.” One congressman suggested LaHood was on drugs.

The new policy is an extension of the Obama administration’s livability initiative, which regards the creation of alternatives to driving – buses, streetcars, trolleys and trains, as well as biking and walking – as central to solving the nation’s transportation woes.

LaHood’s blog was accompanied by a DOT policy statement urging states and transportation agencies to treat “walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes.” It recommends, among other things, including biking and walking lanes on bridges and clearing snow from bike paths.

Transportation secretary is normally a quiet post, a Cabinet backwater. But LaHood has been the administration’s point man on an array of high-profile issues, from high-speed trains and distracted drivers to runaway Toyotas.

The new policy has vaulted LaHood to superstar status in the bicycling world. Bike blogs are bubbling with praise. A post on Ridemonkey.com calls him “cycling’s man of the century.” The Adventure Cycling Association’s Web site calls LaHood “our hero.”

“LaHood went out on a limb for cyclists,” Joe Lindsey wrote on Bicycling.com. “He said stuff no Transportation secretary’s ever said, and is backing it up with action.”

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Word of the policy change is still filtering out beyond the bicycling and transportation planning communities, but the initial reaction from conservatives and industry has been hostile.

The National Association of Manufacturers’ blog, Shopfloor.org, called the policy “dumb and irresponsible.”

“LaHood’s pedal parity is nonsensical for a modern industrial nation,” said the blog. “We don’t call it sacrilege, but radical is a fair description. It is indeed a sea change in federal transportation policy that could have profound implications for the U.S. economy and the 80 percent of freight that moves by truck.”

LaHood said he has been surprised by the response.

“It didn’t seem that controversial to me,” he wrote in a second blog item. “After all, I didn’t say they should have the only voice. Just a voice.”

At a recent House hearing, Rep. Steve LaTourette, R-Ohio, suggested jokingly to a Transportation Department official that one explanation for the new policy is that the secretary’s thinking has been clouded by drugs.

“Is that a typo?” LaTourette asked. “If it’s not a typo, is there still mandatory drug testing at the department?”

The new policy is not a regulation and, therefore, not mandatory, Transportation undersecretary for policy Roy Kienitz responded to LaTourette.

But it’s LaHood’s view “that the federal government should not take the position that roads and trains are real transportation and walking and biking is not,” Kienitz said. “His view is it’s all real transportation, and we should consider it based on what benefits it can bring for the amount of money we spend.”

That didn’t satisfy LaTourette.

“So is it his thought that perhaps we’re going to have, like, rickshaws carrying cargo from state to state, or people with backpacks?” asked the congressman.

Bicycling advocates have been blasting LaTourette. Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists, with 300,000 affiliated members, called his comments “a little childish.”

LaTourette said in an interview that he thinks bike paths, bike lanes and projects that make communities more walkable are fine but shouldn’t be funded with money raised by a gasoline tax paid by motorists. The federal gas tax pays for most highway and transit aid, although lately general Treasury funds have been used to supplement the programs.

LaHood noted that LaTourette supports federal funds for a bike path in his district.

“The point is, on his Web site he’s bragging about the fact that he got some money for a bike path,” LaHood said. “He knows people in his district like them.”

LaHood, 64, said he and his wife have biked on weekends for years. Three days before his announcement of the new policy, LaHood stood on a table to speak to a gathering of hundreds of bike enthusiasts in Washington. He drew cheers when he vowed the Obama administration will put affordable housing next to walking and biking paths.

“I’m not going to apologize for any of it,” he said in the interview. “I think this is what the people want.”

Nissan Announces LEAF Purchase and Lease Pricing

by Jacob Gordon, Nashville, TN on 03.30.10

Cars & Transportation

Buzz up!

Image: Nissan

Nissan’s fully-electric LEAF will hit the US market by the end of this year, but until now, pricing has been only rumor and hearsay. The fully-electric four-door will hit select markets in December and go nationwide in 2011. The price for the basic model is $32,780, but a federal tax credit of $7,500 brings it to $25,280. Individual states also have tax rebate programs, which brings the price down further; California and Georgia both offer an additional $5,000 rebate. To charge the LEAF at home, customers will have to buy an install a special charger, which Nissan estimates will cost $2,200 installed. Although Nissan has backed down on plans for a split sell/lease program for the car and battery, the entire LEAF can be leased for $349 per month.
More on the reservation process below.

Nissan starts taking reservations on April 20th, and will begin with those who have signed up at NissanUSA.com. Paying a refundable $99 reservation fee ensures a spot on the firm order list, which will open to everyone in August. The first LEAF models will reach chosen US markets in December, and the whole country by next year.

The basic SV trim level of the LEAF comes with a custom navigation system, internet and smartphone connectivity, Bluetooth, six airbags, and will include the pre-heat/cool system we saw demonstrated in Japan last year. Stepping up to the SL trim level, costing an additional $940, offers a solar rear spoiler, rearview monitor, fog lights and automatic headlights.

More on the Nissan LEAF

Better than a Test-Drive: Hertz to Rent Nissan LEAF Electric Cars in 2011
Nissan Working on New Battery to Double the Leaf’s Range by 2015
Video: Battery Technology for the Nissan LEAF Electric Car
Nissan LEAF Electric Car to Come to British Columbia First (in 2011)
How You’ll Control Your Electric Car via iPhone
Nissan and Sumitomo will Give a Second Life to Electric Car Batteries

Auburn electric bike maker sees bright future for alternative transportation mode

Gus Thomson/Auburn Journal Dave Werkley, electric bike rider, builder and proponent, takes a battery-boosted spin in his Luther Road area neighborhood. The bikes are big in China and Europe but have yet to catch on in the United States.

Battery-powered electric bikes are big in China and Europe.

And Dave Werkley, an Auburn electric bike rider, builder and enthusiastic proponent, says it’s only a matter of time before they catch on in the United States.

Werkley, by his own estimation, is probably one of only a handful of electric bike owners in the area. He’s hard to miss on his eye-grabbing, neck-turning rides aboard a bike that has the styling of a 1960s era Stingray and rides low as he sits in a recumbent position.

“I believe there’s a great future for the bikes,” Werkley said. “They’re a marvelous way to get out and get some exercise – and get out of the car.”

Unlike more traditional bicycle transportation, electric bikes provide a power boost to riders – particularly on hills – thanks to a battery. Plugging in costs a lot less than a gas fill-up – with electricity enough for a 20-mile riding costing six to eight cents, Werkley said.

An estimated 21 million electric bikes are already being used, mostly in China. Europe is another major market. Werkley said estimated sales there are expected to reach 850,000 this year.

To promote sustainable, environmentally sensitive technologies – and electric bicycles in general – Werkley will join other proponents on a cross-country electric bike trip that leaves from Palo Alto on Earth Day, April 22.

Werkley will ride his electric bike during the first leg, leaving the Green Riders group in Flagstaff, Ariz. The group is slated to roll into Washington, D.C. on June 22.

Werkley, 50, said the cross-country ride is slow-paced and not about how fast and far the cyclists can go.

“It’s all about showing people who are middle-aged or older, who aren’t Herculean athletes, that there’s an alternative way to get to the grocery store – and even get rid of a car,” Werkley said. The vast majority of auto trips are 10 miles or less and around here, it’s easy to supplant vehicle travel because distances aren’t that great.”

Werkley’s Very Cool Bikes can assemble machines that sell for just under $1,600 for two-wheeled models and just below $1,900 for three-wheelers. Assembly kits for bikes, including a battery and parts, are sold for $550. The bonus is that because they’re sold as bikes, there is no license, registration or insurance required, he said.

Werkley prefers the recumbent bikes, which he said are much easier on wrists, necks and behinds. But more traditional two-wheeled electrical bikes are also popular and Very Cool Bikes also markets them.

Next-door-neighbor Renee Price said it’s not unusual to see Werkley around town riding his bike. He’s the guy easily riding up the hills, with the help of a battery boost.

“The bikes are definitely cool-looking,” Price said. “It’s competition for kids building bikes – with that West Coast chopper appeal. It’s truly unique.”

Price’s Very Cool Bikes can be reached at verycoolbikes.vp.web or 530-887-8434.