I got a response from the Duke program within 24 hours after I submitted their form.    What Erin Tripp, coordinator of the program, had to say does not come as a surprise, it ties into what we spoke about at our meeting last week.  As far as putting up maps of commuter routes, I find it interesting that the WVU transportation plan suggests working with the City.  Presently, I would recommend pursuing the same simple approach the Duke utilizes, with a focus on getting the word out about the programs existence.  Here's what Erin said:

"the program seemed to get a lot more requests when we first started up. now, i get only a few per semester, typically during the beginning of semester. but i would say it's fairly successful. when i receive requested for a paired commute, i generally find someone from the cycling community (whoever lives closest to the person making request) who is willing to help the person get started for about a week.

i guess it's success rate is really dependent on how well known the program is, ie, how many people make requests. we perhaps don't do as good of a job advertising it as we could!"

-Jonathan





Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote:
Gunnar, good catch, the web page you are referencing hasn't been updated since May 5, 2007, and the page maintainer is certainly not watching the proper days on the calendar, or has been careful not to mention in what year these events took place.  However, the bicycle library is completely current, check out http://parking.duke.edu/bikes .. watch the video.

While on the topic of Bicycle Libraries, I believe the University of Rochester has the most mature Bicycle Library program, founded by two students at http://www.city-cycles.com , and run from http://sa.rochester.edu/citycycles/ .

We should contact existing Bike Buddy programs to find out what procedures they have employed that produce results, and what procedures they have employed that don't produce results.  Nick, proceed with getting information from your friend that runs the Bicycle Alliance Bike Buddy program.  I will contact the Duke program.  As a simple experiment, I will first submit the Duke Bike Buddy online form to see if I get any responses. 

-Jonathan

director wrote: 
Gunnar,
In a quick lunchtime search I came across the following link from Bike Alliance of WA (state)....

http://www.bicyclealliance.org/commute/bikebuddy/index.html
This is actually run by one of my old Seattle bike buddies.  He'll probably give me any additional information we need, but I'm reluctant to offer spend much time on it as I'm already overloaded.

Nick

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "gunn4r Shogren" <gshogren@gmail.com>
Date:  Fri, 5 Oct 2007 11:52:31 -0400

  
On 10/4/07, Jonathan Rosenbaum <freesource@cheat.org> wrote:
    
Thanks, Nick!  Here's what Duke's Bike Advocates Bike Commute Buddies
form looks like:  http://www.duke.edu/sustainability/commute_buddy.html
      
Seems nice.
Do you know of any campuses or other bike-orgs that provide a similar
service, or one that has suggested commuting routes, via a
maps.google.com thingy perhaps?

I believe this has been discussed ad nauseam but perhaps w/ the help
of Nick or some other site we could perhaps post some routes for folks
to turn to.

    
It appears the way this works is that submitted information goes to a
central person(s), who then matches the interested person with a Bike
Commute Buddy who is knowledgeable of the requested route.
      
In looking at the site a little closer, it also appears that it hasn't
been updated in a while, or there is no need to. :(
http://www.duke.edu/sustainability/bike.html
FREE Bike Repair Station!!
WHEN: Tuesday, Sept 19 & 20, 10am-2pm
looks like that happened in 2006.

Show Your Support for Biking at Duke!!
DATE: Thursday, September 22nd RAIN OR SHINE!
looks like that happened 2005.

Do these things just run out of steam?

Also Jon and Nick, and others-
Fodder for a potential meeting w/ the MHS principal would be how other
schools are being "progressive" and "forward thinking" in regards to
alternate transportation to school.
Might be nice to have some stats or examples of non-backwards thinking
schools...

    
-Jonathan

director wrote:
      
Good evening,
As we discussed in tonite's meeting I've put a bike commuting buddy list up at the positive spin forum.  You can get to it at this link.
http://www.positivespin.org/forum

I haven't put much down in the way of rules, I'm hoping you can give me some feedback before we release it to the world.

You can read the list without joining, but posting requires that you be a member.  Feel free to peruse some of the other topics too.  I'm hoping to get a few more people contributing their thoughts and ideas.  Plenty of people seem to be reading it, but not many are posting.

Thanks!
Nick

_______________________________________________
Bikeboard mailing list
Bikeboard@cheat.org
http://cheat.org/mailman/listinfo/bikeboard

        
_______________________________________________
Bikeboard mailing list
Bikeboard@cheat.org
http://cheat.org/mailman/listinfo/bikeboard

      
_______________________________________________
Bikeboard mailing list
Bikeboard@cheat.org
http://cheat.org/mailman/listinfo/bikeboard

    

_______________________________________________
Bikeboard mailing list
Bikeboard@cheat.org
http://cheat.org/mailman/listinfo/bikeboard
  


_______________________________________________
Bikeboard mailing list
Bikeboard@cheat.org
http://cheat.org/mailman/listinfo/bikeboard