The Social Bike Network

Call me a social network Luddite.  I have a Facebook account, however I think I check it about once per month, and that is usually only when I am using it to advertise.  I opened a Twitter account, when I don't remember, however I never did anything beyond creating an account.  I never signed up to follow someone's 140 characters. 

I jumped on the blog bandwagon years ago and had a personal blog for a long time, but all of the social networking stuff kind of escapes me.  I am sure it can be useful and entertaining, I just find myself busy with so many things that I never have found much use for social media tools like Facebook and Twitter.  I will eventually see The Social Network, probably when it comes out on DVD (call me a movie theater Luddite as well) and maybe it will get me excited about social networking . . . or something. 

However, reader Sam contacted us and shared about some social media and its usefulness related to bikes and cycling.  He sent a link to the following post on TusconBikeLawyer.com:

Check this out: Collin F, computer programmer and frequent TNBR participant, has created some kind of robot that downloads Tucson police information on some kind of RSS feed, searches it for its relevance to bicycles, and then puts the resulting report on twitter. It’s quite interesting.

He is also working on a map that shows the location of bicycle collisions, which will ultimately lead to some pretty good information about where the dangerous areas are.

I think the City should be paying him to do this, but he’s doing it for free.

Here is a screen capture of the of the map referenced in the post above.  All I can say is that it scares the crap out of me!  Look at all those blue dots!  If those are all bike collisions, me thinks riding in Tuscon ain't such a good idea.  And here I though biking in NYC was dangerous . . . geeez. 

Are you a social media fan?  Have you found social media and biking to be a productive combination?  Want to set this Luddite straight?  Thoughts are welcome in comments. 

 

Comments

[oldfool]

I have Facebook, My space and Twitter but I find all a waste of time. I haven't looked at My Space in months I only check Facebook when I get an email that addresses me personally and I think I signed up and entered something on twitter once but I'm not even going to check. I will keep Facebook as I have family there, some that I have never met in person.
Writing to my blog and reading others I find satisfying.
Social networking seems to be a safe substitute for real interaction with other people for those that may be otherwise socially challenged.

[Chris]

I'm with you Matt. For a long time I was without Facebook and had never been to twitter.com. It is actually my job that pushed me into those sites. I still feel that (like most tools we humans develop) Facebook and Twitter have wonderful potential to be useful tools for the powers of good (like our mapping friend above), but are too often coopted for evil, self-gratification, laziness, simple-mindedness.

One point a friend made the other day: Facebook has become as ubiquitous as cellular telephones. A scant ten years ago, I had one friend who had a cell phone. At this point in time, who doesn't? You're expected to have a cell phone (people don't make plans to meet you at 8pm, they'll "call you when they get there"). In much the same way, we're all slowly being expected to be on Facebook, as my employer expected me to be in order to do my job to its fullest extent. And much like magazines, television, rock music and cell phones were decried as horsemen, then accepted, so will Facebook remain omnipresent.

[Jack]

As far as Facebook is concerned, my bicycle club/team organizes everything there. So I use it for that.

The map seems to show pedestrian related collisions too. Plus every collision seems to get at least two ids. Lastly it seems cover a pretty long time. There are about a dozen collisions since the beginning of September. I did not figure out how far back the map shows collisions.

[Tibia Gold]

I think the City should be paying him to do this, but he’s doing it for free.Writing to my blog and reading others I find satisfying.
Social networking seems to be a safe substitute for real interaction with other people for those that may be otherwise socially challenged.The map seems to show pedestrian related collisions too. Plus every collision seems to get at least two ids. Lastly it seems cover a pretty long time. There are about a dozen collisions since the beginning of September. I did not figure out how far back the map shows collisions.