Google Maps ‘Bike There’

A couple of months ago I started looking at Google.org (Google’s non-profit arm) just to see if we might be able to somehow get them involved in our efforts to see bicycle navigation on Google Maps. I knew they were big into renewable energy and staving off climate change, so they might have an interest in our lobbying efforts. I knew they were into plug-in hybrid cars, but I didn’t know they were into geothermal power. To figure out what geothermal was all about, I started Googling around, and must’ve cycled across this Monocle article on Swiss grocery store chain Coop (video interview), which Monocle labels “the greenest grocer in the world.” It turns out Coop (pronounced Kohp, like Hope) was using geothermal power. And that’s how I found out about Monocle Magazine (wiki).

A few months on, they provided us a list of the world’s most-liveable cities (subscription required). Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space gives us the full list. Copenhagen Cycle Chic was quick to tout Copenhagen’s top ranking. (Also, Denmark just came out on top of the “World’s Happiest Countries” ranking.) It’s OK, though—I plan to do the same when Austin makes #1.

Monocle is a high-end ($10 USD per issue; £7.50 Euros per issue), “freaky,” and all-around very good magazine. There are not too many magazines I can pick up these days and read more than an article or two of (Momentum is an exception), but if I could afford Monocle, I’d subscribe right away. At a minimum, you’ll get interesting pictures from all over the world. The website has lots of great video, and both the content and the look seem very polished.

Check out the video trailer for the “Quality of Life” issue here (.mp4 format), or just play the Flash version below:

To explain their methodology, Monocle’s founder and editor published an article in the IHT last year titled “Urban Manifesto: Factors that make a city great.”

For this current “Liveable Cities” issue, Monocle has an interview with Alain de Botton (homepage) (wiki) that is worth a listen.

A few years ago, I read de Botton’s Consolations of Philosophy and thought it was pretty cool, so I was interested in what he had to say. I didn’t know he knew a thing or two about architecture.

Over and over again, it seems like we keep running into the concepts of urban design. For much of the world, it seems clear that we’ve messed up pretty badly and now we need to get back on track. Bicycling and urban design go hand in hand.

…p.s. I was hoping someone would smush this list of liveable cities up against the top bicycling cities and tell us what the overlap is. Is there a positive correlation between liveable cities and bikeable cities? I would think so, but I’d like to get a little more clarity.