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Business<br />
GO GREEN,<br />
GO CYCLING!<br />
Ditch the touristy 'Hop On,<br />
Hop Off' bus and use<br />
hospitality exchange website<br />
COUCHSURFING as your<br />
platform to use bicycles offered<br />
by hosts for free.<br />
Couchsurfing is paving the way for a<br />
different kind of surfing and it involves<br />
bicycles.<br />
Now, what if you could cycle for free in<br />
the country you are visiting? What if you<br />
could use a local’s bicycle and avoid<br />
getting told off for hogging cycling paths<br />
just because you’re staring at the tulips<br />
for a moment too long?<br />
Hospitality exchange website<br />
Couchsurfing (CS) is filled with groups<br />
of people identifying themselves as<br />
‘bikesurfers’. The groups are locationbased,<br />
so if you plan to couchsurf in<br />
Rome, choose the ‘CS Roma: travel by<br />
bike’ group to plan your itinerary. Not<br />
only would you get a couch for free, you<br />
get to move around for free and help<br />
reduce your carbon footprint!<br />
CS is an online hospitality exchange<br />
network of global travellers who offer<br />
one another free accommodation in their<br />
homes, usually for several nights at<br />
a time.<br />
Just like the interface of a regular social<br />
networking site such as Facebook, CS<br />
users are able to upload pictures, send<br />
friend requests, fill in their profiles with<br />
information such as visited countries and<br />
their purpose on the site, organise local<br />
CS events, create interest groups and<br />
use its main functions which include<br />
searching for hosts, confirming their stay<br />
with said host and later leaving a<br />
reference on the host’s profile.<br />
As such, currently on the website, there<br />
are several dozen of bike surfing groups<br />
worldwide. Active groups are mainly<br />
Rome and Bogota-based groups.<br />
Those who wish to be part of the group<br />
will have to join and are able to post<br />
discussions or view other like-minded<br />
CS cyclists. Members will also be able<br />
to send requests for lending a bicycle if<br />
they are Couchsurfing or travelling in<br />
that particular city or town.<br />
CS group ‘Bikesurfing Bogota’ has over<br />
300 members. The group allows<br />
members to post requests for a bike from<br />
Colombian couchsurfers if they intend<br />
to visit Bogota.<br />
Colombian cycling organisation Mejor<br />
En Bici (which loosely translates to ‘Better<br />
by Cycling’) stated that it would be happy<br />
to work with CS and “link couchsurfers<br />
with its bike system.”<br />
However, its founding partner, Ricardo<br />
Arango said: “Maybe in the near future<br />
as we do not have the technology to do<br />
it at the moment.”<br />
The organisation, which started in 2009,<br />
advises companies to adopt a healthy,<br />
sustainable, clean and practical life<br />
through cycling.<br />
Ricardo said: “We work with companies<br />
and universities. The bicycles we<br />
provide are either for employees<br />
within a particular company or for<br />
university students. As such, at present,<br />
a normal person will not be able to use<br />
our system.”<br />
Apart from surfers in Rome and Bogota<br />
who are keen on bike surfing, Spaniard<br />
couchsurfer Andres Galindo said he too<br />
has always been conscious about<br />
sustainable means of transportation and<br />
wishes to<br />
do his part<br />
of travelling<br />
sustainably and<br />
using CS as a platform<br />
to further achieve this.<br />
The 52-year-old accountant from Madrid<br />
said he always offered his bicycles to<br />
surfers and advised them to travel via<br />
bicycles.<br />
He added that: “Cars dominate public<br />
space. We should reclaim the streets for<br />
the people. So, bicycles are the perfect<br />
solution to issues such as traffic jams, air<br />
pollution and lack of parking spaces.”<br />
Apart from lending his bicycles to<br />
travellers via CS, Andres created a nonprofit<br />
community called ‘BicisSolidarias’<br />
(which loosely translates to ‘Solidarity<br />
with Bikes’) and said members are<br />
encouraged to share or lend their<br />
bicycles to travellers visiting Madrid.<br />
A European Cyclists Federation (ECF)<br />
study revealed that cycling is responsible<br />
for CO2 emissions of 21g per km. The<br />
study calculated emissions associated<br />
with production, maintenance and fuel.<br />
The figures were based on a heavy 19kg<br />
European-style town bike built using<br />
14.6kg of aluminium, 3.7kg of steel and<br />
1.6kg of rubber and the cost of producing<br />
the extra calories consumed by a cyclist<br />
rather than a motorist. Meanwhile, an<br />
average car produced 271g and a bus<br />
101g CO2 per km.<br />
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