Cycling and Twitter

Something about Twitter that I haven't touched on much is how some groups use it for activism. I follow a handful of charities and a few advocacy organizations, and the reason I haven't mentioned them much is because they don't use Twitter much. It's possible that I'm following the wrong groups and that other organizations are making much better use of their Twitter accounts than the ones I'm following. Or, perhaps they are too all busy doing their advocacy/charity work to bother much with Twitter, a luxury that I think has probably already passed them by.

Bike Texas' profile page and most
recent tweets.

One organization that I both follow and volunteer for is Bike Texas. They tweet mostly about events or if a crucial vote is coming up, when it's a good time for cyclists to contact their legislators to ask for cycling-friendly votes. Bike Texas may not tweet a lot, but they are extremely well-connected; one tweet from them gets retweeted by cycling organizations all over Austin. And by cyclists, of course-- I retweet them a lot, not only because I work for them (although that is part of it), but also because they do save their tweets for important things.

An funny thing happened back a few weeks ago: We were working on our projects during class time, so I was logged onto Twitter when Bike Texas tweeted about the grand opening of San Antonio's bikeshare program. I clicked the link and saw that the map was messed up; anyone trying to follow it would have been hopelessly confused! So, I emailed a coworker right away about the issue, and as far as I know they corrected it. That never would have happened if not for this project, so that was a nice side outcome of the class.

Recent tweets from Austin On
Two Wheels. In case you're
wondering, yes, I am the Susan
Wilcox mentioned in the second
tweet. ;)

Another Austin cycling organization that I follow is Austin On Two Wheels. They aren't an advocacy group so much as an online magazine for cyclists in Austin, and they are much more active on Twitter than Bike Texas (including being one of the organizations that retweets anything that Bike Texas tweets). However, as an online magazine, they do advocacy in their own way, by hosting events and keeping Austinites aware of cycling issues. Plus, the editor of Austin On Two Wheels is one of the few cyclists who is willing to go onto online forums and engage with complaining motorists, fielding their complaints and making points of his own. Most cyclists would rather put that energy into cycling rather than bothering with online forums, so in that way, Austin On Two Wheels is standing up for all of us.

Thanks, guys! This has been a fun semester! I was really nervous about this class at the beginning, but you guys have never made me feel too old to get what you were talking about. :) Have a great summer!