Blogging and logging--more online toys

A friend of mine posted on one of the local list servers recently, asking that folks log their bicycle miles on My Cycling Log. His idea was that there is no good way to gather statistics on how much folks are riding, and it would be cool to have some more concrete numbers than we have.

The drawback, of course, is that not everyone who bikes for utility a) has web access, b) internet savvy enough to use the site, c) cares to do so. Any benefit to the community based on cycling rather than driving would thus be under-reported by an unknown percentage.

Still, it's yet another way to spend time online, so I created a user account and joined in the fun.

I was able to use cues from this blog to figure out when I rode, where I rode, and will plug in rides as far back as the first of the year over the next few weeks. After entering the data for the last two weeks of my own riding, I played around on the rest of the site a bit, to see what it does. It's kind of fun to see how my friends are doing with their riding, all in one easy-to-find place.

For my own part, I've ridden to work twice this week (and tonight will mark twice that I've ridden home from work...). I wandered around a bit on Monday, after meeting with some bike education folks over lunch to discuss topics including the upcoming Bike to Work celebrations. All that got duly logged as above.


There is some buzz about Google making an option in their Google Maps directions for bicycle friendly routing. OF course, as with any on-line tool, it helps to know the tool's limitations and prepare accordingly. One person commented that it suggested a route from Lexington to Somerset that spends FAR too much time on US27.

However, Google admits that the system needs input. There is a method for giving them suggestions on roads that are safer or less safe than the routes the system devises (I've not toyed with it enough to figure out that process as yet, but will probably do so soon). It will take time for their algorithm to get sorted to the point that it's more useful, but it's a great start.