Breakfast Links: Learning to share

Bike sharing the social way

Another totally different, experimental bike sharing program in New York simply involves a bunch of bikes which people can take anywhere, lock to any bike rack, and others can find using a mobile app. (CrunchGear)

Healthy employees are happy employees

The City of East Lansing, MI — home to Michigan State University — is starting up a bike-sharing program for city employees. Local bike advocacy organization Share-A-Bike has placed eight donated bikes at five prominent locations throughout the city, and employees can check out bikes via their work email. Helmets are required, but not included. (City of East Lansing website, Geoff H.)  (Tip: Geoff H.)

Prince William County goes to the dogs

Ana Santiago, a 12-year-old Dale City resident, has started a campaign to bring a public dog park to PWC. She originally wanted to clean up a local dog park for her Girl Scout community project, but discovered that PWC has no such parks. Ana and her mom began calling county commissioners and park officials, created a Facebook page, and recently had a yard sale to raise money and support for a public dog park. (InsideNoVa.com, Facebook, mandy)  (Tip: mandy)

There must be an app for that

The latest numbers from the BEA show aggregate personal consumption expenditures are up 2.9%, or $285 billion from 2007IV to 2010II. Mike Mandel points out that while spending on phone equipment and pets is up over $7 billion, Americans have cut back their spending by over $125 billion on gas, cars, and parts. (Innovation and Growth, charlie)  (Tip: charlie)

P is for Portland, but not for pedestrian

Even in Portland, believed to be a bastion of smart growth, pedestrians are treated as impediments to car traffic. The People’s Department of Transportation (PDOT) reviews, with video, the new pedestrian barricade at the NE 82nd Ave Transit Center. (People’s Department of Transportation, Steve O)  (Tip: Steve O)

Newspaper page rage

Are auto reviewers over-emphasizing horsepower at the Washington Post and New York Times to blame for some of Detroit’s troubles? Gregg Easterbrook asks editors to “stop demanding conservation on the editorial page while promoting road rage and gasoline waste on the auto pages.” Ouch. (Reuters, charlie)  (Tip: charlie)