Putting Footbiking On The Map

One of the biggest barriers to the active expansion of footbiking, kickbiking, trikking, and other foot/leg driven hpv sports is that the devotees are relative small in number, and are “apparently” physically separated by large distances.

I say ‘apparently’ because it may not be entirely true. For example, one of our neighbors just down the block may also use a kickbike or trikke, but unless we happen to be using our trusty steeds at the same place and time we would never know about each other and the way we share a love for the same sport.

So, how can we address this barrier? The ‘first pass’ is an online map – a fusion of the Google map capabilities with user input like zipcode or city, photos, comments, and contact information (if they like.) The map, called Global Footbiking (see link below) when live on Saturday night. An initial post was made on several footbike related Yahoo groups, and by late Sunday night there are already 14 avid (rabid?) footbikers listed.

Most of the people are in the US, though there are some European and Asian footbikers (like me) listed as well. Since the map uses Google maps as the underlying technology, you can zoom in to see the whole US-

Or take a closer look at a more specific area-

Or zoom right into to see roughly where some of your fellow footbikers hang out along with whatever info and photos they’ve been kind enough to share-

And their historical comments and photos are also kept on the same site for you to browse through-

Feel free to add yourself to the map, even if you don’t already own a footbike, Kickbike, Trikke, Xootr, or other similar hpv. It’s all about community, sharing interests, experiences, and helping others – especially newcomers and people considering taking up this wonderful exercise and sport.

Related Link: http://www.frappr.com/globalfootbiking

Comments

[Ryan Soumokil]

Lem, as always, you're thinking of better ways to keep everyone in touch. Great work! Although I did mess up by placing a "huge" pic on the site, then "double text"ing while trying to fix it with another pic. This is a very cool idea. Let me thank you from all of us.
Ryan

[Jeff Oakie]

Lem, This is a good find. It will be interesting to see the map populate.

The guys at FootbikeUSA have just received approval for a new meetup.com group to be assigned for just kickers. It will be called http://footbike.meetup.com/.

Look for it to be online the first week of April. Kickers around the country will then be able to access and moderate a MeetUp group and start holding weekly kicks in a city near you!