The Bicycle Barometer [Resources]

It takes me 25 minutes to get to work via London´s Tube, and about the same time to cycle to work. I prefer to cycle´the Tube is crowded and prone to delays´but there are times when it´s too cold or wet to avoid the train. Last year, I realized that making the decision before my daily commute to cycle or take the Tube had become a surprisingly complex affair. Transport for London, which runs the city´s transit network, opened up its application programming interfaces (APIs) in 2010 to developers as part of the London Datastore, which aggregates data from a number of public sector organizations serving the city (http://data.london.gov.uk). This led to the creation of dozens of status and travel planning apps for commuters. Consequently, I´d check the weather forecast the evening before and the status of the Tube on my phone in the morning. I´d hooked up an instant messenger alert (via the IFTTT.com service) for rain. None of this was particularly draining, but it was an extra bunch of things that made Monday mornings a bit more Monday morning-ey. I wanted something that would handle all that data and help me spend less time choosing and more time drinking my tea. So I created the Bicycle Barometer, with a needle that swings between a bicycle and a Tube icon depending on the conditions