Have you ever been unsure whether you should bike or take public transit to work? You’re not alone! Richard Pope of London recently blogged about his most recent invention, the bicycle barometer, which tells him if he’s better off cycling, or taking the Tube to work. Richard Pope describes it like this:
“The bicycle barometer takes data about the weather, the status of the tube lines I use to get to work, and whether my local station is open or shut.
It then reduces all that data down to a single value and displays it on a dial with a bike sign at one end and a tube sign at the other.
For example, if it is raining a bit the dial will move a bit towards the tube sign, but if the tube is suffering delays, it will move a bit back in the other direction.
Different data points get different weightings. E.g. snow is more important than a bit of drizzle; the tube station being shut trumps everything.”
Here’s a short video of the bicycle barometer in action:
