My roommate walked out

My roommate walked out to go to dinner and then came back in a few minutes later to tell me that a Yellow Bike was in front of the house. What’s a Yellow Bike? Why is Yellow Bike capitalized? That was my question. Well, maybe not the capitalized part, but you know what I mean. Turns out it’s part of the Yellow Bike Project (YBP)–a project started in 2001 by an offshoot of Bikes Not Bombs, a non-profit organization that collects and repairs bicycles to donate to groups in Central America and sell to the public. YBP is quite simple really. See a Yellow Bike? Hop on. Ride wherever you need to go and leave it there. Repeat.

I’ve heard of programs like Flexcar that allow you to rent a car for just a couple hours, but never a free network like this. Pretty cool. Here’s an article about YBP from The Austin Chronicle.