Saturday, May 24, 2008

Portland, bicycles & books.

Many many years ago, Nolan & I went out to Portland, Oregon to visit my sister. While we were there, not only did we fall in love with the area, but we had discovered this interesting concept that the Portland Police Dept. had put into effect. They painted up dozens and dozens of bicycles with a bright & cheerful sunshine yellow paint scheme, and appropriately named them "Courtesy Bikes." These bikes were distributed all over the city. The idea was that if you saw a yellow bike not currently in use, you were welcome to pick it up, ride it to your destination, and then leave it there for whoever may need to use it next. What a great idea! We need to do more things like that. "Okay, I'm done. Your turn!"

Well, the other day there was a book that decided to end up on top of the mailbox where I work. It had a sticky note on the front that said "I'm not lost, I'm on a journey" along with some information about a traveling book program. Same concept as the bikes in Portland, except it's sharing literature! Instead of junking a book you never read anymore, just leave it somewhere (like on a Chiropractor's mailbox) and let it be available for someone to pick it up and read it, then return the favor and leave it somewhere for the next lucky finder. What a great idea!

The book that was left is called "The Shadow People" by Joyce McDonald. Britty is reading it right now, and she says it's pretty intense, but loves it. She'll probably "randomly" leave it on my bed for me to find so I can read it! LOL!

For more info on this traveling book concept, click here.

3 comments:

Heather said...

I wish that they would do the bicycle thing here in Utah too. They've thrown the idea around, but the city counsel has too little faith in our public, saying out loud that we would vandalize the bikes or rip them off out right. What a great idea for the books! I'll have to talk to the girls about it.

Gerb said...

Donna, I've read a couple books that have been passed around like that - I'd guess that a lot of travelers have, too. It's a fun concept. Especially when they have a web site where you can log on and see where the book has been and where it goes to. I got the last one in a hotel room in Maui and left it when we went to Australia.

Hmmm... I wonder if I should start some kind of Bikini world tour that way? Thinking, thinking...

I love that they do that with the bikes in Portland. What a cool idea. Especially now with the gas prices the way they are... I wonder if such a thing would encourage people to ride instead of drive more?

Anonymous said...

I love the courtesy bike idea. And I'm always encountering books on a journey. Let me know how the book is.