Image from the Central Park Conservancy

Ready to take in the New Year on a bike? If you're not looking for a quiet evening, Time's Up! is hosting their 12th Annual New Year's Eve Ride and outdoor after party this Saturday. Their tips: dress festive, bring noise makers/party favors and food & drink to share. The main meeting place is Washington Square Park, under the arch, at 10PM.

Here is a link to help route you to Washington Square Park.

Bike Month is just around the corner and this year NYC gets it's first ever bike show! Apparently there was a bike show back in 1897 so I guess it's about time for another. They plan to have bike giveaways, roller races, some bike safety education, helmet giveaways, a place to test ride bicycles, and plenty of food and good coffee. Check out the list of exhibitors.

Date: Saturday, April 30,  2011
Time: 10 AM to 7 PM
Place: Center 548 -  548 W 22nd St, New York, NY 10011
Tickets: $15 in advance ($20 at the door)

Do you ever feel nervous about taking your bike into new neighborhoods? Are you afraid you might get stuck on a one-way street between an expressway on-ramp and a six-lane arterial? We know the feeling. That's why we're pleased to bring you the Ride the City Photo Scavenger Hunt as part of NYC Bike Month. Use Ride the City to find safe bike routes to parks and other exciting spots in all five boroughs throughout the month of May!

Plus, if you share photos of your bike with Ride the City, you can win some great prizes from our sponsors, Bicycle Habitat, Bespoke Bicycles, and Adeline Adeline.

There's a lot happening this week for bicycling and pedestrians as NYC hosts the 10th annual international conference that promotes walkable communities: Walk21. The conference is being hosted by the New York City Department of Transportation in collaboration with NYU and takes place from Wednesday to Friday. In addition to seminars on walkability, sustainability, safety, complete streets, and the environment, there are some bicycle-related seminars and workshops:

Wednesday, October 7th 2:00-5:00pm
NYC Bicycle and Pedestrian Programs: If you can do it here, can you do it anywhere?

Friday, October 9th 2:00-5:00pm
A Bicycling Culture: The ABC’s of bicycle parking, transiting and sharing

Bike lovers be ready: Tuesday is World Carfree Day. According to the World Carfree Network:

"Every September 22, people from around the world get together in the streets, intersections, and neighbourhood blocks to remind the world that we don't have to accept our car-dominated society.

But we do not want just one day of celebration and then a return to "normal" life. When people get out of their cars, they should stay out of their cars. It is up to us, it is up to our cities, and our governments to help create permanent change to benefit pedestrians, cyclists, and other people who do not drive cars."

The goal of the event isn't just to silence the streets and clean the air for a day, it's to bring attention to the kind of world we could live in.

In Chicago, the Active Tranportation Alliance is getting people to Take a pledge to not drive their cars. Sign up and you get a dollar discount at Caribou Coffee. As I write, they got 849 people signed up.

The NY Bike Jumble is in effect this weekend. What is it? Basically, it’s an occasional flea market for bikes and bike-related accessories.

It’s taking place in Manhattan, in the schoolyard on 4th Street (between A & B) from 10-4. Swing by to get a used bike, pick up some tailored cycling clothes (non-Lycra slicks), or buy some bicycle art. Looks like there’s even time if you want to sign up as a vendor.

It's not always fun to ride a bike in the grueling traffic of NYC, but this Saturday it's traffic free during Summer Streets: car free Manhattan along Lafayette/4th/Park Avenue from the Brooklyn Bridge to 72nd Street (Central Park).

The event takes place for three Saturdays (August 8, 15, 22) from 7am-1pm and has loads of events, including kids' dance classes, graffiti artwork, capoeria, Tai Chi, classes (How to Ride in NYC Traffic!), Yoga, and lots more. One thing it's not is a bike race; keep that in mind, Lycra boys.

Even if you haven't been there, you might have heard that Austin is great for bicycling. According to the bike gurus, the League of American Bicyclists, Austin is the only city in the whole state of Texas worthy enough to receive a ranking in their Bicycle Friendly Community program. (The City comes in as the 15th best U.S. city for bicycling, and for that it gets a silver badge.)

Well, we're hopeful that bike riding in the Lone Star state is going to get even better today as we launch Ride the City – Austin: www.ridethecity.com/austin. Put your hands together!

We'd like to thank all those who helped during the tweaking and clean up of the data to improve the routes. We especially thank Nathan Wilkes and Jason Fialkoff, both of Austin's Bicycle Program, and bike advocate Tom Wald. These guys gave excellent feedback and helped to comb through the routes to make sure the most common local routes are accurate. Thanks guys. (Some day we'll show you one of Nate's hand-drawn maps, really cool.)

Here's an awesome contest, ideal for any urban bike rider: Pimp my green bike contest. The deadline's just been extended to Wed, June 24 (midnight). To enter you just have to sign up for a newsletter, send a pic and a story, and you can win this weird looking folding bike.

"All you have to do to win is provide us with photographic evidence of why you need this awesome bicycle - is your current ride a crusty old clunker? Is there a mammoth mountain of steps leading up to your 6th floor walkup apartment? Whatever the case, upload your photos after the jump and leave a comment explaining why we should pimp your eco-ride, and we'll be selecting one lucky winner to receive this beautiful limited edition Strida bicycle valued at $950!"

(Btw, this tip comes from one of my favorite blogs, Inhabitat, which is all about green design.)

This weekend is not only Memorial Day Weekend, it marks the beginning of Ride the City's new version 2.0. On Saturday, May 23rd at 2pm we're having a party at Radegast to hang out with y'all, get your input, and give away prizes and gifts. Btw, it's worth it if only for good food & drink.

To highlight one new feature, see the picture above. The new version distinguishes which bike shops have rentals (R within the gear) from which businesses have no rentals (gear without an R). Also (but not in this image) are the businesses that have no bike repair, only bike rentals (R without a gear).

We hope this feature will allow you to find the business you need, without having to do your own sweaty research.

There are other updates, too. We'll go over them this weekend but if you can't make it, don't worry, we'll also walk through these in future posts.

We hope to see you at Radegast.