[I met with Thomas, the creator of this program in Nantes. He heard I was behind Winter Bike to Work Day and wanted to chat. I found this system to be very interesting, sophisticated and graphically beautiful. Its essentially a platform for companies and individuals to get started, challenge each other and share their experiences cycling. It doesn't appear to really be aimed at a "normalized cycling culture" but it may have its uses, particularly in places like Canda or the UK or Australia with dismal numbers that already do stuff like Bike to Work Week or Commuter Challenge to get people talking. It certainly seems to be catching on all over the place. It takes the basic concept of the above, injects some digital steroids, and tosses in strong social media muscle to make it spread widely. It costs $ to implement, but the costs seem fair for what you get. The sponsorship component is handled deftly. It may be worth considering brining this to Winnipeg, or replacing certain IT aspects of what we already do with their system. . . esp. considering the number of cities/countries that are signing on. At the very least, I am going to look into how perhaps we might be able to do this nationally for Bike Day in Canada Next Year. If any of this interests you, talk to me. - Anders]
From Thomas:
Hey Anders,
It was great to meet you at Velo-City. Here is some more information for you and your colleagues to look at re Love to Ride.
Our Partner facing site - www.lovetoride.org
A short 2 min Animation on Love to Ride - https://challengeforchange.wistia.com/medias/7jckx9l8kz https://challengeforchange.wistia.com/medias/7jckx9l8kz
A short 5 min TEDx Talk I gave - http://getmorepeoplecycling.com/2014/07/09/thomas-speaks-at-tedx-atlanta/
http://getmorepeoplecycling.com/2014/07/09/thomas-speaks-at-tedx-atlanta/
A couple of example sites:
UK – www.lovetoride.net/uk
Sydney, Australia - www.lovetoride.net/sydney http://www.lovetoride.net/sydney
Please feel free to pass this email on to any partners you work with who might also be interested in learning about Love to Ride.
A skype call in the next few weeks could be a good option.
Cheers,
Thomas