Correction

"Rusty Riders" meet every Sunday at 9am at Hickory Hollow (101 S. Heights Blvd). They linked our blog to their Facebook page, so excited to have you guys on board!

Rides! Rides! Rides!

If you're interested in getting into the swing of bike riding, I've got some news for you. There is a multitude of rides you can go on in Houston! For example, on Tuesday evenings around 7:30 p.m., a group of in-line skaters ride about 15 miles, and many bike riders join. I've done this ride twice already, and I LOVE IT. It's a great workout, and you visit a bar half-way, which is always a plus. There are individuals of different skill levels, so if you haven't been on your bike in a while, you'll be fine. Everyone is super friendly, and it's a great social activity - not to mention good for your health and the environment. In addition, a group called "Rusty Riders" rides on Thursday nights and some Saturdays. They had a pub crawl two Saturdays ago as well. If you're interested, go to http://www.facebook.com/RustyRidersHouston?ref=ts, and add them as a friend. There you'll get all the updates on their rides.

I will be updating periodically on more rides.

How-To...

I just tried the search query "how to start a bike share program" and Google came up with some informative results:

• http://www.ibike.org/encouragement/freebike/starting.htm#Starting
• http://bike-sharing.blogspot.com/

Also, I found an exciting article from the Boston Globe about Mayor Menino's $6 million dollar deal to start a bike-share program in Boston. It will be a welcome relief for many from the crowded MBTA buses and trains, hopefully! Where was this when I was living there less than a year ago?!

It's time to get Houston on board, people!

And the winner is...

Which American city has the most cycling commuters?

Predictably, Houston did not make the top 10...and I'm guessing not the top 25, either. Let's blow these guys out of the water (or, rather, off the road...?)!

Bike Share at Work

I love seeing an active bike sharing program in action while touring the NASA campus south of Houston in Clear Lake. NASA employees can grab a bike outside one building and bike across the entire campus to go hang out with the astronauts in training or in any other building of their choosing, and they can get there quickly via bicycle.

Another place where this is in use is in the "backstage" areas of some of the Walt Disney World parks. I used to hop on a bike after parking outside the main employee building at the Disney Studios, and then I could ride around the back portion of the park, behind the scenes, until I neared the employee entrance to the ride where I served as a tour guide. It was so much fun, especially when the backstage tour tram would pass by, and you could wave to all the tourists visiting the park while bicycling to and from your job. I have great memories of this, and I also got great exercise doing this every day. I actually lost weight while working for a semester at this Disney park, due in part to my daily bicycle share program at my workplace.

Space City Cycleshare would be a fabulous edition to the Texas Medical Center, since the buildings I visit as a student are very spread out, and some fellow students go to work in TMC hospitals many blocks away from our class building. A cycle share program would be a welcome addition to the TMC. Let's get cycling!

Heightened Air Pollution in Houston

Each year, I look forward to opportunities to be outside in the summer - mowing the lawn, bicycling, gardening, and my beloved afternoon run - but this year I may rethink some of those activities. This article by Gina Carroll from examiner.com equates a daily run in Houston to be as bad for health as smoking a pack of cigarettes. The cause for concern about air pollution is currently heightened, due to power failure at some of our nation's largest refineries in Texas City.

Residents in Texas City are essentially being quarantined by "shelter-in-place" advisories to stay indoors with no windows. Advisories are issued when hazardous materials are suspected to have been released into the atmosphere. The third largest refinery in the nation, run by BP, was the first to be left without power. I know a graduate student in Geophysics at Texas Tech University coming to intern with "biggest polluter," as he put it, this summer. Perhaps his description isn't too far from false.

Thankfully, a pair of graduate students from NYU -  Nien Lam and Sue Ngo - are designing some fashionable clothing pieces to alert the wearer to increased carbon monoxide. Check out Nien's blog for more information about their project.


warning signs from Susan Ngo on Vimeo.

Will you think twice before heading outside this summer?

State of the Air 2011

The Huffington Post's Joanna Zelman posted a very informative article today about air quality in the most polluted United States cities. Unsurprisingly, Houston was listed among the likes of Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New York - blame in part to the huge amounts of particulate matter produced from coal-fired power plants.

Notably, Zelman reports that those at greatest risk from the effects of air pollution include those with asthma, diabetes, and heart disease. It's no secret that Houston has historically frequented the top of the list of Fattest Cities in America. This year, Houston has dropped to #9. We could blame this on Texas food options in general (Texas hosts 5 of the top 10 most overweight cities), but Austin - only a couple hundred miles away, is one of the bottom 10 at #96.

See this image close-up here.