Fried-o-whatsit?

That's "Freikometer", and it adds a lot of fun to bike encouragement programs. Freiker's success is due to fantatical dedication to data. Like many other bike programs, we started with punch cards. The next year we used barcodes and scanners. 2006-2007 is the year of the Freikometer: an automatic device that counts riders and uploads the data securely to freiker.org. It's solar powered so you can put it right near the bike racks at your school.

The Freikometer is currently under test at several Boulder Valley School District schools. The freikometers survived a very harsh winter -- for the most part. We're glad the winter is over, and they are operating very well in our wet but warm spring. We will be upgrading all Freikometers in the summer of 2007 to operate better in extreme cold. We will be expanding outside the Boulder area; it's a matter of time to prove out the technology, which so far is going well.

The best way to understand how the Freikometer works is to see it in action. View the movie (5mb).

Freiker Doubles Ridership!

Twice as many kids are riding to Crest View Elementary than were riding two years ago. Why? iPods. It's that simple. Kids who ride to Crest View (and other area schools) receive an iPod if they ride their bikes 90% of the time to school. At Crest View, that means Freikers must ride 160 times this year. Last year we gave out 50 iPods and about 10 digital cameras to hard-working Freikers at Crest View, Foothill Elementary, and Horizons K-8. We gave out lots of other prizes, too. Yet, the cost of the program is only about $5,000 per school. Isn't it worth 10% of the price of a new Lexus to improve our environment by encouraging more kids to get on their bikes more often?

Freikers do not compete against each other for prizes. There is no best in class, school, or otherwise. Every kid wins if they try. Ride to school once, and you're a Freiker. Ride to school the whole week, and you are entered in a drawing to win the Green Gear and $10. That's an achievable goal for any kid, and it's the first step towards a healthier, more self-reliant, more alert student.