We've come upon a new app that's likely, unfortunately, to be useful to lots of bicyclists in NYC. NewYorkBikeLawyers.com, the New York Law firm of Flanzig and Flanzig, LLP has just released an application called New York Bike Crash Kit, available for both iPhone (Apple) and Android platforms. In celebration of bike month, May 2012, Flanzig and Flanzig, LLP has tipped us on this unique and useful free smart phone application. (Disclaimer: Flanzig and Flanzig supports Ride the City)

Attention Open Street Map Contibutors!

As many of you know, most of the data in Ride the City is based on Open Street Map (OSM), the wikimap of the world that allows anyone to freely contribute information to. Well, OSM is going through some changes and is requesting that all members agree to their revised license, Open Database License 1.0 (ODbL).

Sorry for the late warning, but if you've contributed data to OSM and haven't agreed to the new license, your data may be deleted as of April 1, 2012. (This is not an April Fools joke.)

There's a new bike shop in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Please welcome Fulton Bikes. They're at 997 Fulton St, between St. James and Cambridge.

I happened to be walking along Fulton to pick up some groceries and came across this beautiful new bike shop fully stocked, clean, and spacious.

There's a bike musical coming to town!

Written by a cyclist and bike shop owner, Bike Shop is the story of a Brooklyn bicycle store and its owner, Bobby. Two years after a tragic bike accident, Bobby tries to get back on the bike to get her life in gear. The sole performer brings to life three generations of a colorful, bike-obsessed family as she builds and repairs real bicycles on stage...while backed up by the 4-piece Bicycle Band.

Please welcome Ride the City - Los Angeles Metro!

We're happy to finally bring easier bike routing to NYC's west coast sister, and burgeoning bicycle City, LA. There are lots of positive bicycle developments taking shape in LA and we're happy to be a part of it. Ride the City now gives the poeple of LA one more option to get around safely by bike. This is our largest geographic scope yet, including over 300 bike shops & bike rental locations on the map!

GOOD brings us a clever video/infographic to show how a small percent of the commuting population can positively affect all traffic by shifting modes of transport from the car to a bicycle or transit. (Created by Mono: Mono-1.com)

We got the tip from Streetsblog - LA. Thanks!

The Alliance for Biking & Walking has released a 242-page document: Bicycling and Walking in the U.S.: 2012 Benchmarking Report. It looks to be packed with tons of great data and figures.

After having listened to Obama's State of the Union speech last night, the part of the report that jumps out to me is that bicycling and walking projects create more jobs than highway projects. In their words, "Bicycling and walking projects create 11-14 jobs per $1 million spent, compared to just 7 jobs created per $1 million spent on highway projects." I didn't have time to read through so let me just share a few of the many great visuals:

We launched Ride the City - Chicago about three years ago. A lot has happened since then and Ride the City has changed quite a bit, too. Well, we're coming back to Chicago now to focus on the map to make it better. We're looking for people to help.

If you live in Chicago or know it well, consider spending an hour to improve the map in any part of the city you know well. We're looking to add missing bike lanes, bike paths, bicycle/pedestrian bridges, and so forth.

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.

So there are only a couple weeks left before Christmas...agh! Here's a quick pitch to encourage you to consider shopping at Etsy this holiday season. Etsy is basically an online marketplace that brings together artisans to help them sell their crafts. Or in their own words:

Our mission is to empower people to change the way the global economy works. We see a world in which very-very small businesses have much-much more sway in shaping the economy, local living economies are thriving everywhere, and people value authorship and provenance as much as price and convenience. We are bringing heart to commerce and making the world more fair, more sustainable, and more fun.