Cleantech

The Bike Store Guys (& Gals)

Who doesn’t love small, independent bike shops (other than big, corporate bike shop chains, that is…)? But for those of us who travel or move around a lot (and I think that’s most people these days), it can be hard to find such bike shops in new cities (ok, not that hard, but not always that easy either). Additionally, in some places, there’s no independent, local bike shop at all. The Bike Store Guys is a website that links up many of these shops, though, and helps create a broader community of such bike shop owners and lovers, for people across the U.S. Here’s more from their website

10 Most Climate-Ready Cities in the U.S.?

Boyd Cohen, Ph.D. recently came up with a methodology to rank large cities in the U.S. based on how much they are preparing for or trying to counter climate change. He then went on to create and publish a top 10 list of the most “climate-ready” cities. While I think the term “climate-ready” is sort of a mistake, since he focuses more on efforts to stop climate change not adapt to it (which is what I would assume “climate-readiness” would be about), I think the overall idea and methodology looks great.

Solar Panels: Father’s Day Gift?

Generally, I try to keep an eye on the most popular Google searches in the U.S. For one, I think this is important for my job, to see if something I’m interested in is hot at the moment (and why) or to find out about something important I might have missed in my normal news channels. Additionally, doing so just gives me an idea of what’s happening or what’s popular at the moment, in general.

New Bike-Sharing Program in Wrocław, Poland! {Videos & Pictures}

New Bike-Sharing Program in Wrocław, Poland! {Videos & Pictures}

I’m a bicycle lover. In particular, I’m a huge proponent of bicycling for transportation purposes. Bicycles are super efficient (perhaps the most efficient transportation option out there), meaning they are very environmentally friendly and also save you and the city a ton of money. They are also a ton of fun to ride, good for your health, good for your mind, and highly accessible. But, in some cases, using your own bike for transportation purposes is impractical. For, this reason, from the first time I heard about bicycle sharing programs (like the huge one in Paris, Velib), I fell in love with them.

15 Things I Loved about Living & Bicycling in Groningen (the Netherlands) +25 Pictures

I meant to complete this “things I loved about living & bicycling in ________” series before National Bike Month ended, but it didn’t happen and, anyway, bike month should be every month! Here’s the second-to-last post of the series….

I lived in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands for 5 months in 2007. With a bike commute rate of about 50-60% and about 2/3 of inhabitants, in total, using the bike from time to time, Groningen is a top-notch bicycle city. It has been named Bicycle City of the World on more than one occasion and the following are probably the main reasons why.

7 Things I Loved about Living & Bicycling in Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, & Redwood City, CA

Following up on my posts about what I loved about living and bicycling in Sarasota, FL and Chapel Hill-Carrboro, NC, here are 7 things I loved about living and bicycling in Northern California. In the middle of graduate school, I lived in Sunnyvale for a summer, worked in Redwood City, and did most of my grocery shopping in Palo Alto. So, despite being 3 different places, they were sort of one place to me and I’m combining them all for this.