Just saw this post. I live on a busy road in Brighton Heights, and would be willing to leave a tool kit on my porch for a cyclist in need to use to change a tire, etc. I can't promise that I'll always open the door, but the kit will be there as long as someone doesn't walk off with it. Just let me know if the signs/stickers are available, and I'll put one in my yard.
The database is a good idea. This has already happened for a long time in the motorcycle world, and it's simple and works really well.
There is a similar thing for owners of old Volkswagen buses. Their version is a big book with the name, address, and phone number of everybody registered. Once when I was a kid our old bus broke down while on a family road trip in South Carolina, and we found a guy from a few miles away in the book. He made us dinner, lent a garage, a bunch of tools, and took a day off of work to help us get our bus running again.
Anyway what I'm trying to say is this is a good idea.
Erok, what happened with those die-cut BikePGH stickers I made last year?
I took the "Every time I see and adult on a bicycle, I have hope for the human race" card from a bike fest poster and put it on the outside of my front door. I would house some people or help them out if they needed. I like this idea.
I've thought about posting a metal box with some tools cabled to it outside of my apartment.
Anyone wants to haul their broken bike up a bunch of hills, they are welcome to use my pile of tools. If you cuss at your broken bike long enough, I'll probably feel bad enough to give you some free beer too.
Ok, so, I've been called a neo-luddite before, so maybe I don't know wtf I am talking, but couldn't there be something Twitter based or the like? That way it would be live and if someone needed assistance they could contact someone who could help at that time.
I could even see posting a Twitter address on the GAP trail so people coming in from out of town could contact the community instantly with questions or for help.
Seeing as how this thread started 3 years ago and Twitter didn't exist...
Could start a #brokencyclistpgh hashtag on twitter, that would be about it. A google map with pins where help is available might make more sense.
Any android / iphone devs out there? might be cool to make a quick, dirty little web app that would list the locations of Cycle Samaritans.
I think simple window/door stickers would be simpler solution. I would happily provide stickers to those interested.
Only problem I see with stickers is that you have to look around to try to find one. Say someone breaks down on Penn, little do they know I'm one block away with anything they would need, and the chances of them happening to wander down my street are slim to none.
Might be good for businesses, though.
Maybe there is some sharp bike shop manager out there who would see the value in having a bike set up with gear, tool, tubes, etc., to ride out from the shop and assist broken-down cyclists? A sort of AAA for bikes?
My house is a tad out of the way, but my vacant lot is right on the corner with Perrymont, 200 yards off PerryHwy. I'm more likely to do something like leave a jug of water and a plastic toolbox with cups, pump, a few wrenches, etc., under an overturned plastic chair in the lot. Suitably un-eye-catching for unknowing passers-by and neighbors, but otherwise readily accessible.
I, too, live on a busy road in Brighton Heights. Dozens of cyclists pass by every day, and there's usually someone around at our home. We'd be quite happy to be part of a "cyclist samaritan" network, whether it's a sticker on the house, an entry in a database, or whatever.
Scott, Erok, Lolly...how do we make this happen?
I'm thinking that we should first make a database, then the people on it should have stickers, signs, something brightly colored and easily recognizable. Then there should be something simple, like a blog entry, that links to the database of bike-friendly residences/businesses, and a picture of the sticker/sign, so that people know what to look for.
As far as getting the word out to people who might use it in the future, things like twitter or facebook would work, or even stumbleupon. "like" the page using stumble and tag it things like "bicycling," "safety," "repair," "help" etc.
Hmm. If i'm out on the bike and something craps-out, if there's not a house with a sticker or whatever on it right there, then that's not much help to me. A friendly house might be a block away - but that might as well be a million miles.
I think for this to be effective, it should probably be somethign more like couchsurfing or hotshower. Some nationally searchable website with user feedback. It would be nice to have it for other cities while you are touring as well which is why I think a national site would be easier.
Obviously this is a lot more complicated than just a list of peeps in the burgh, but I think its a lot more usefull too
maybe a little book? or dots on the next bike map?
Uh, couldn't this maybe just be as simple as a list of contacts, like an "emergency assistance" button on the BikePgh site - "Cycle Samaritans"? With name, general location (no addresses!), and phone number. The BikePgh! site seems to work just fine with smart phones, so if there were signs on trails, even people coming from out of town could get on and find some help if needed.
a paper list would be the best, i think.
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm not putting my home address in a searchable database. Sounds like a handy directory for high-end bike theft. I don't even put my actual address in my GPS unit as "home" because if it were ever stolen from my car, the thief would know where to go rob next, while I'm filing the police report.
A listing by neighborhood with an email that forwards to someone's SMS would be an appropriate level of abstraction.
Unfortunately, a paper list would be out of date as soon as you print it.
I don't know what SMS is, or how to use it.
My phone makes phone calls and texts, but I can't access anything else.
sms=text message
okay. That makes more sense now, and seems more doable.
I actually thought it was a smartphone thing.
I don't even put my actual address in my GPS unit as "home" because if it were ever stolen from my car, the thief would know where to go rob next, while I'm filing the police report.
Do your registration and insurance documents also have your address on them? Have any mail in the back seat? Pre-programming the GPS may save a thief a few seconds but your address is probably in the car somewhere already.
Pretty sure the insurance card does not have my home address on it. Not sure about the registration - so you could be correct. Also, "my car" in many cases is a zipcar.
Someone as paranoid as I am would never keep mail in plain sight in the backseat. You could read addresses and account numbers without even opening the car.
In my scenario, the thieves are not thoroughly digging through every scrap of paper in my car hoping to find a valid address, they are smashing a window and grabbing a $200 electronic device, only later learning that it leads them right to my house.
I'm wondering about the differing things we may have to offer. RubberFactory talked about being willing to put people up (which is awesome) for example, which I most likely wouldn't be able to do. That made me think that there could be confusion (not just on this issue) if not everyone on a list (or point on a map) is offering the same thing.
I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I think it's a fantastic idea - I'm just pondering details and throwing my thoughts out there. Maybe there's some creative way to clarify this kind of stuff.
It sounds like some people are up for hanging out with the brokenbike rider while they use your tools, even helping out. Others are looking at making tools avail even when they're not home.
I'm also wondering what I should think of as a minimum (with regard to what I have to offer) for me to go onto the list. I've got a stand, air pump, generally enough to spare out of a patch kit. New tubes, although the ones I have are for my bikes, and who knows if they're the sizes someone else's bike would need. Growing set of tools: wrenches, allen keys, third hand, etc.
And what about mechanical skills? There are things I can do and other things I'd not be super confident about. It'd be great if there were a way to let people know whether they'll just find tool access when they get here, or someone to help them with various levels of stuff.
color coding?
I was just thinking that, color coding.
Maybe different symbols, even.
like:
if you can offer housing to those touring
if you offer tools
if you can offer a meal.
if there's a list somewhere, maybe next to the names, put the symbol (or just words, but I like symbols because I think they're neat).
Say if we make signs/stickers, we can get the house/toolkit/etc images separately and add them the the signs manually
I don't know, I just like the idea of people having a home anywhere they go.
I think this sounds like a cool idea. the sticker idea seems like it would be pretty simple, especially if the stickers already exist.
Much of this already overlaps with the previously mentioned warmshowers.org (or even couchsurfing.org ) If you want to offer a place for a touring cyclist to stay, check out warmshowers. It is already established, well-used, and global. I don't mean to discourage any efforts, it just seems like a lot of time might go into something that already exists.
I thought this was more of a local "I got a flat in lawrenceville, but live in south hills, uh oh!" type of a thing.
What about somethign like geocacheing for tools..
yeah i think there are already plenty of places to stay and we don't need to be redundant.
i think a sticker with the bike pittsburgh logo, maybe with a pump or something in the window would be easiest and useful for people who need a quick bike fix.
Although window stickers may not help if you are somewhere unfamiliar, I think you would start to notice them along your regular routes.
I like the business angle. Perhaps, if we could convince someone like Trek or REI to provide basic kits at cost, we could bribe coffee shops and restaurants and whatnot to purchase 'em and keep them handy. Maybe nice attention-getting stickers for their doors and an entry in some online "bike-friendly business" listing...
Lou's working on a bicycle friendly business project. I'll tell him about this idea.
When I think coffee shop, I think "place where they want to use the sidewalk in front for tables full of customers, and not having people fixing their bikes there"* - maybe a bad fit for higher end restaurants too, even if they don't do the sidewalk table thing. Dive bars maybe. I can definitely envision people fixing a flat in front of the Squirrel Cage with nobody feeling like their style was getting cramped. Plus they're usually open later. You'd need some other businesses to cover people riding early though. Bakeries?
*With the possible exception of Tazza d'Oro
Sheetz's.
^^^Wot 'e said.
there have to be enough nerds on the board to make something that you txt an address and it spits you back the closest house on the list, the list wouldn't have to be public and you would only be contacted if you were the closest house.
i'm pretty sure you should do this all for free... i just don't quite know how.
i can likely do all that, but it might be a bit of a project (though i do have time at the moment). however, i surely couldn't afford the necessary infrastructure (an sms gateway would be ideal, though an email address could work, but that would still likely require a server somewhere).
and also: that's kind of what i was thinking. in fact, i was thinking more like texting back contact info and/or an address, if the user opts to allow people to see their address.
ya definitely... you txt your address, we text back closest match... i feel like all this can be done for free, i have access to a database, can make the data base... if you txt to a google voice number and have it autoforward to a (i have no clue) that querys the database and then emails the info to phonenumber@txt.att.net or whatever other provider, thats that... i use all of those various things for things and all that should work, i just don't know how to query the database and send the email (but i feel like i could figure it out no problem)
maybe they would have to txt address, wireless provider, always assume pittsburgh, pa ... they hardest part is figuring out how to put the database info into something that can figure out which entry is closest... everything else should be pretty easy.
txt: 176 49th street, att
response: eroks house 123 obvious st.
they would sign up and give their mobile number and provider, and enter a number from a test text sent to them. then we've got all the necessary info, and an assurance that it works.
i have a quickly hacked together smtp library that i wrote (in c++). i have no idea what state i left it in, but it probably just needs a bit of error handling work. i know it can send emails. i've even sent texts with it. and i'm sure i still have a list somewhere of a mapping between providers and email domains.
i don't know off the top of my head how to do the proximity measurement. presumably it would be done with some google maps api?
we would need a dedicated smtp server, plus a server that receives emails. these would almost certainly be the same physical machine, and these are low-resource, low-bandwidth operations, presuming we wouldn't have to be sending and receiving 746 texts a minute, so a home computer with good security and connectivity could work (i do not, at the moment, have such a computer).
to do it right, i would prefer having an sms gateway. but an email works. and so does a google voice number, if someone has one to spare.
can't anyone just get a google voice number?
for sending the email I was thinking something like just using the php mail function... i guess this would be a good reason to learn the google maps api if people are into it.
this lays out exactly what we need to do, the only thing we'd have to figure out is getting the txt into the googles and we'd be set.
Pretty sure anyone can get a gvoice number. There are plenty of conditions you agree to when you sign up. I expect using the number for such a service is probably frowned upon, but it is worth reading all the fine print to find out.
considering this would be used 1 time a week max i don't think it would matter... may be wrong though
I agree it wouldn't be flagged for overuse, but just saying check it out before you go and have signs with a phone number printed up. It would suck to get a few months in and have them axe your gvoice account for some silly TOS violation. Might I suggest some sort of X (3?) addresses a week retrieval limit per number? Without such a safeguard, it would be very easy for a geek (there are plenty of them in PGH) to reverse engineer the database with a small script that randomly feeds the service addresses.
All that said, this sounds like a mighty fine idea.
i was thinking about that, if someone wants to do that they are going to do it anyway... i was thinking about somehow making a quarter usage fee if we are going to have to pay for anything (a reliable sms gateway might cost like 10 cents per txt) and this would also cut down on abuse, i wouldn't mind paying a quarter for something like this if it worked
This project is a lot more high-tech than I was thinking. While I like the simplicity of stickers in people's windows, it would be pretty neat for this system to evolve through the message board.
