Sunday 30 November 2008

SmartBikes: a smart choice - Silver Chips Online

Opinions - Silver Chips Online: "In Barcelona, they call it 'Bicing.' In Paris, it's 'V�lib.' The wave of public bicycle sharing programs that has swept through Europe has finally arrived in the U.S., with a successful system implemented in Washington, D.C. as of August. Now, D.C. Councilwoman Valerie Ervin is proposing a similar pilot program for Montgomery County. The program is vital to the citizens in their efforts to conserve the environment, save money and reduce traffic."

Wednesday 26 November 2008

comments for stations are enabled now

You can now vent your anger or satisfaction on your favourite stations on the bicingwatch website. You can see an example here. I am using the disqus -- if it is good enough for ping.fm, then it is good enough for me.

Tuesday 25 November 2008

api.bicingwatch.com already broken

For some reason bicing.com decided that it would a good idea to make it harder to get the current state of the stations. The "localizaciones" page is now on a SSL page and I think they use the session to make sure that it is someone browsing the page. A pity really. UPDATE: that was not so bad, just SSL and user agent check. I still think they should provide a proper API with some kind of user agreement, so that you don't use it to make money or poll it every couple of seconds.

Saturday 22 November 2008

krakowski bicing


krakowski bicing
Originally uploaded by jjkason
That looks freezing, I am glad I am in Barcelona.

I think that is http://www.bikeone.pl/

Ibicing Iphone 3G - Entre Montañas

Bicing Barcelona – Ibicing Iphone 3G - Entre Montañas: "Así que la compañía Mi Mundo Iphone ha creado una aplicación para solucionarnos este pequeño problema: Ibicing." Ibicing Iphone 3g

new domain

Well, that took a while. But now the bicingwatch has its own domain: http://blog.bicingwatch.com/ I will use the domain for other stuff too. The first example is http://api.bicingwatch.com/ which is just a test area for some bicing statistic graphs and maps I am testing.

Tuesday 18 November 2008

Barcelona elevará un 20% el precio de los abonos "bicing" - Expansión (update: make that 25%)

Barcelona elevará un 20% el precio de los abonos "bicing" - Expansión.com: Seems like we have top pay a little bit more for bicing next year. This is not really unexpected, the Metro prices are raised every year and bicing does need more money. UPDATE: bicing y robing note that it is going up to 25% which is also confirmed by El Periodico

Nou Bicing Widget! - Nigeka

Nou Bicing Widget! - Nigeka
A new version of the bicing widget, which introduces a new colour coding to show not only full and empty stations, but also the ones with "perfect" balance of bicycles.

Monday 17 November 2008

ibicing

ibicing is an application to find out the bicing station status with an iphone.
Here it comes the best application for one of the most popular public transport services in Barcelona: Bicing, the new unexpensive and sustainable public transport, with more than 200,000 users. Download ibicing and you'll never go to an empty station to grab a bike again. Are you riding near Sagrada Familia and you don't know where the closest Bicing station is? ibicing will locate the nearest station in just a couple of seconds. ibicing features include: - Real-time information about the bicing stations status - Search stations near a given address - Mark stations as your favorites - Show station location in Maps - Set search radius - Filter results by bikes/spaces availabilty If you have an iPhone, you'll sign up in Bicing service just to use this app. If you are a Bicing user you can't live without this app. ibicing is that kind of app that will make your friends buy an iPhone
get it here: iTunes Link produced by http://www.mimundoiphone.com/

Sunday 16 November 2008

El Bicing revisa las bicicletas y marca las que van bien | El Periódico de Catalunya | Barcelona

El Bicing revisa las bicicletas y marca las que van bien | El Periódico de Catalunya | Barcelona: "Las bicicletas del Bicing lucen desde esta semana un nuevo distintivo. Se trata de unas marcas de color verde y amarillo que han sido colocadas en el guardabarros de la rueda posterior de gran parte de los vehículos. No son unas señales reflectantes, sino un intento de la empresa concesionaria del servicio, Clear Channel, de hacer un recuento de su parque de bicicletas y, de paso, controlar cuáles han pasado en los últimos días por los talleres y cuáles no."
That is what I thought when I saw yellow and green stickers (I really need a new camera). It is a bit strange that bicing doesn't know how many bikes they have, with all of their computer systems and bicing cars and scooters driving around all day.
Another interesting thing in the article is the mentioned bicycle half life of one year. I wonder how this compares to other cities with the same bicycles like Washington, Stockholm or Perpignon.

Saturday 15 November 2008

Not quite Amsterdam yet ...


descontents
Originally uploaded by king nikochan
It seems like there are still some people who need to be convinced that cycle lanes are a good idea.

Tuesday 11 November 2008

Expat in Barcelona: Two wheels good for Barcelona bikers - Telegraph

Expat in Barcelona: Two wheels good for Barcelona bikers - Telegraph: "Barcelona has decided to put its money where its wheels are. After two years of pussyfooting (or should that be pussypedalling?) around, mayor Jordi Hereu has stuck out his political neck by opening another bike-only lane on the city's main street, Comte d'Urgell. This means there are now 150km of lanes for Barcelona's cyclists, with another 50km planned by 2009."

bicing expands again


View Larger Map
  • Rocafort
  • Rocafort
  • Villarroel
  • Bruc
  • Pl. Jaume Sabartes
  • Consell de Cent
  • Bolívia
  • Llacuna
  • Avinguda Litoral

Sunday 9 November 2008

Bicycle-sharing mania takes hold in Europe - International Herald Tribune

Bicycle-sharing mania takes hold in Europe - International Herald Tribune: "Here in Barcelona, streets during rush hour are lined with commuters and errand-goers on the bright red bicycles of Bicing, the city's 18-month-old bike-sharing program. Bicing offers 6,000 bicycles from 375 stands scattered every few blocks; all the bikes seem to be in nearly constant motion."

Thursday 6 November 2008

41º23'N 2º10'E: carriles para el bicing

41º23'N 2º10'E: carriles para el bicing: "Los carriles para bicis están apareciendo por toda la ciudad, unas zonas más que otras, pero el caso es que la ciudad se ha tomado muy en serio eso de que la gente pueda ir en bici." BB reports about the new bike lanes which are appearing all over the city now. We got a new two lane bicycle lane being build next to the office at the moment. If this continues like this we will have as many cyclists as Amsterdam soon :-)