Bicycle Barometer Tells You If You Should Ride Your Bike To Work

If you need a little geeky design inspiration for the day, this little bicycle barometer ought to provide that. It’s so simple, yet so worth taking a look at. I’m one of those people who would ditch my car and ride my bike everywhere if I could. I hope to do that someday. There are countless reasons why this would be good for the environment, for our bodies and for our happiness. This bicycle barometer could tell you whether or not it’s a good day to ride your bike to work or not, based on the weather forecast and several other factors.

This hack was created by Richard Pope. He coded it to connect to the Internet, fetch the weather forecast, check the status of the route he would ride his bike to work, check the status of the tube lines he uses to get to work, and then compile all that data into a single measurement which is displayed on the dial of this barometer. You’ll see, there is a bicycle on one side and a tube on the other. If you want to know whether or not you should ride your bike to work, one of these might be fun to make for yourself.

It takes all kinds of things into consideration. For example, he doesn’t mind riding his bike in a little rain, so that holds less importance than snow. If the tube lines are delayed so he won’t be able to take that form of transportation to work then it will most likely swing back over to the bike side. He created this using an old clock he found at a flea market. He even posted the code, instructions and design here on github so you can find out if you should ride your bike too. So cute!