Looking to get out and, I don’t know, just ride SOMEWHERE?
Well, Cascade Bicycle Club has released a snazzy new iOS app that features ten rides in and around Seattle “curated by Cascade staff.” From long rides — like the Lake Washington Loop — to short rides — like from the Space Needle to Pioneer Square and back — the Let’s Ride! app includes a turn-by-turn cue sheets and summaries of how difficult the rides are and how long they will take to complete.
One ride even features a backdrop of yours truly smiling like a doofus. NO OTHER APP HAS THIS:
Here’s a map of ride starting points (obviously, the loop rides can be started at any point):
Cascade Bicycle Club is excited to announce the release of our ‘Let’s Ride!’ app, which invites residents and visitors to hop on a bike and discover the region on two wheels with 10 amazing bike rides curated by Cascade staff.
The free app offers comprehensive information of 10 bike rides around Seattle, including a map of each ride and turn-by-turn directions. Additionally, each ride features a photo and gives users details on distance, difficulty, approximate time to complete, terrain and road condition of each ride.
Nam-ho Park, Managing Director at Forum One, and Tim O’Connor, Tech Manager at Cascade Bicycle Club gave the project oversight and guidance.
“When I first moved to Seattle four years ago, I explored the city little by little every weekend by bike. I was able to see many sights and discover some great neighborhoods. Seattle is a very bike-friendly city blessed with gorgeous summers. It makes sense to have an accessible app for new and old residents as well as visitors to explore the city by bike,” said Park.
Park and O’Connor pitched their idea to the University of Washington’s Information School (iSchool) as a masters capstone project.
“Fortunately a team of very talented students took us up and committed an amazing effort to take the app from idea all the way to the Apple App Store,” said Park.
The ‘Let’s Ride!’ app was created by dedicated team of masters students: Chenglu Chai, Wenjing Yang and Xinwei Liu.
“With incredible tenacity, long hours, collaborative lunches, action-packed conference calls, fastidious notes and organization, these three graduate students pulled off what was considered a long shot by most,” said O’Connor.
Park agreed, “it was an amazing collaboration all around.”
The public is invited to attend the students’ iSchool Capstone Presentation:
Thursday, June 4, 6 – 9 p.m.
Husky Union Building (HUB) Lyceum, North Ballroom, and South Ballroom
More details here.
Comments
15 responses to “New app from Cascade guides you on popular area bike rides”
iOS only. Yep lets target high earning whites why don’t we. Android would make more populist sense as it is the leading OS even here in Windows country.
From Cascade via Twitter:
“would like have accessible on all platforms in future. Development was generously donated by UW students for a capstone proj.”
That’s who rides bikes.
Thats who YOU see in Ballard. Don’t mind me. I’ll just peddle over here in the South End where I’m allowed.
It’s about time! Somebody from the South End. I grew up down there and am a transplant up here. Welcome to Tom’s blog where’s it’s a northern Seattle biker clique.
What Tom said. This was a capstone project done by grad students at the UW iSchool. It’s easier to develop for iOS than Android and they are dealing with a deadline for graduation.
Not everything is a signifier of class warfare. Sheesh.
This is pretty neat. The fact that these are laid out like this suggests maybe – just maybe – it’s safe to ride them. Someday I might try one.
Unfortunately I do not have the know how of loading this app. Can research details of the rout? I like to go on spontaneous bike trips or research the details of a certain route. Sounds like a great app though.
That’s awesome! I love that it was a capstone project.
Maybe next quarter’s could be porting to Android. :)
Brilliant idea!
I hope the school and the club will keep working on this with future students. Adding rides is obvious, as is making an android version. And I’d love for it to be hands-free talking (while GPS tracking the rider’s location). I’m hooked on my Bluetooth connection to my remote speaker and google-maps spoken instructions – no need to look at the phone.
Nice work everyone!
Just a thought. Why would anyone need this? If you haven’t been out and about exploring your own region by bike yourself, I question why you own a bike. Discovering and creating your own routes is half the fun. Meh. What do I know??
It’s not for us. It’s for expansion of the biking community. Tell people about the app. Get them to plan a family outing. Make people see how awesome and easy it is to bike Seattle. That’s what brought me in. That’s what brings people to the light.
Or a DUI
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