It's Saturday in New York and you want to enjoy the city. What better way than to ride a bike, right? Well, if you don't have one, don't worry. You can always rent a one, and beginning on Saturday, August 9th, you'll have a great opportunity to rent a bike and ride the city in safety! NYC DOT is closing an entire avenue nearly 7 miles long in Manhattan to allow people to enjoy the city without honking and without dangerous cars during Summer Streets.

There will be a ton of activities, from what we can tell, including music, yoga, walking, dance and bike riding (and rentals). Ride the city in safety during Summer Streets.

A few weeks ago, we blogged about Bike Around Downtown, the bike share program at South Street Seaport this summer.

If you still have serious Velib-envy, you can participate in a bike share program from July 10-14 during New York Bike-Share Project 2008, a program that is sponsored by The Forum for Urban Design, the Storefront for Art and Architecture and City Bakery. It's free and there are four pickup/drop-off spots around SoHo, the Village, and Flatiron/Union Square.

If you want even more exciting bike share news, you need look no further than a press release from the NYC Department of Transportation.

I think it's safe to say that a City-wide bike share program could be reality within the next five years.

If you're thinking about taking a longer trip and you're not sure if you want to ride the whole way, consider taking your bike on the subway for part of the trip. This is a handy trick, especially when it's raining or if you get a flat out on the periphery of the concrete jungle.

Fortunately, the MTA allows bicycles on subways at all times. (They discourage bikes on subway cars during the morning and afternoon peak periods, which is understandable.)

And if you feel like getting out of the City, you can take your bike on the Metro-North Railroad, New Jersey Transit, and Long Island Rail Road trains. The MTA+Bike site has details for Metro-North and LIRR trains. And NJ Transit has details on their site.

You've successfully hopped over potholes, dodged taxicabs, and run the gauntlet of jaywalkers. In other words, you've biked to work. So where do you park?

The New York Times published a story today about that daily bicycle commuter dilemma.

We're working on incorporating bike parking facilities into Ride the City. We'd be interested in hearing your thoughts about what kind of information we should show about each bike parking location and how we should show it. Please let us know your ideas by using the feedback form, or email us at info@ridethecity.com.

How long does it take you to ride to your destination? If you use Ride the City, you'll notice that along with "total distance" it provides you with an estimated time.

How is "estimated time" determined? First, Ride the City calculates the total distance. Then it assumes a slow (10mph) and faster (15mph) speed to figure out the low/high estimated riding time. Aside from a slight variation for greenway miles, that's it.

How accurate does the estimated time play out for you?

It's official, the Danes are coming.

Copenhagen-based bicycle company Velorbis is launching "wave urban cycling concept in the US." Not sure exactly what that means, but they're partnering with Boston's importer of European-style bikes, the Dutch Bicycle Company, to expand into our growing market:

"It has been predicted that urban cycling will be the next big consumer movement in commuting – a focus on healthy living plus green ‘carbon conscious’ attitudes has increased the desire for travelling by two wheels. Increasing numbers of people are choosing to cycle to and from work, around the city or for a leisurely cruise during the weekend. Cycling is no longer limited to sport only – it’s now a lifestyle requirement/choice/state of mind."

The number of cyclists in NYC is growing; you can see them in masses on the streets. The NYC Department of Transportation estimates the number of bike commuters has grown by 75 percent since 2000. That's great news!

But how does NYC compare to other North American cities in bike-friendliness? MSNBC reports that, even though it has by far the most cyclists, NYC stands at #8 (just behind San Francisco). Portland, OR is number one on the list.

You can never be too safe on the bike. Last Sunday I (Vaidila) was stopped at a red light in Manhattan (at Broadway/Spring) waiting for the green (like a good cyclist). All of a sudden, a yellow cab fails to stop in time and tags me from behind, smashing my wheel.

The moral of the story: You might be doing everything right on your bike, but drivers aren't always paying attention. Ride with caution.

Check out our interview with Richard Hake on WNYC. This is what happens when you put two urban planning nerds in front of a microphone!

Here's the piece: Ride the City on WNYC.

The rain showers and thunderstorms this weekend gave us the perfect excuse to stay indoors and work on the website. We've listed the major changes below.

Better error handling
Did any of you try to plan a bike route to Jersey City, Yonkers, or Nassau County? If you tried to get to any of these locations -- or to anywhere else that is not in our street network database -- you probably noticed a nasty bug that could only be bypassed with a page refresh. We now handle this exception and a few others more gracefully.

Printing
The site now prints a nice, clean set of turn-by-turn directions. As we mentioned earlier, getting the map to print properly is going to take a little more work.