Alex Davies, 24 July 2010, USA: TreeHugger - Cars & Transportation via Yoxi

When challenged to come up with a way to inspire more people to bike for transportation in addition to recreation, three three "former non-bikers" from New York City proposed a campaign to focus on mutual respect between drivers and bikers. The team, calling itself "!ola," was one of four competitors in a contest sponsored by Yoxi, a new site dedicated to social innovation. In its debut competition, Yoxi (pronounced yo-see) posed this question:

How can we make our cities more welcoming to bikers? How can we encourage more people to ride a bike when they can?

The solution could come in many forms: a product, program, device, game, movement, or competition. It could involve new business models and bike sharing; new bike design that's safer and more comfortable or government-funded workshops to teach people better biking. Whatever it is, it's got to be smart and have mass appeal.

Image Credit: !ola

The competition featured four teams, each of which entered a series of videos presenting their views on the challenges of urban biking, as well as a final "pitch" for a concrete idea to face those challenges. !ola, made up of Ozge Kirimlioglu, Liesje Hodgson, and Angela Chen, was one of four teams competing in the better biking challenge, proposed a "campaign for better biking" that would focus on the ideas of mutual respect between bikers and drivers, improved visibility, and resourcefulness (designing clothes to make bike commuting more practical).

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