We're happy to announce a new version of the Ride the City iPhone app. And to make the news even better, we've reduced the price of the app to just $1.99!

So we actually started working on this update during the summer of 2011, and although it's taken some time, we think you'll be happy with the new features. Here they are:

The Alliance for Biking & Walking has released a 242-page document: Bicycling and Walking in the U.S.: 2012 Benchmarking Report. It looks to be packed with tons of great data and figures.

After having listened to Obama's State of the Union speech last night, the part of the report that jumps out to me is that bicycling and walking projects create more jobs than highway projects. In their words, "Bicycling and walking projects create 11-14 jobs per $1 million spent, compared to just 7 jobs created per $1 million spent on highway projects." I didn't have time to read through so let me just share a few of the many great visuals:

Here comes REI. The large outdoor equipment and clothing coop with over 3.5 million members, listed as on of FORTUNE Magazine's "100 Best Companies To Work For", is moving into NYC, opening on December 2.

The store will be located inside the beautiful Puck Building on Lafayette St, just south of Houston St (and only two blocks from Bicycle Habitat, one of our favorite bike shops in the world).

This year's Fall Brooklyn Bike Jumble will be held on Saturday, September 24th at the Old Stone House at 4th street and 5th avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Here's the schedule:

9:30AM - 10:30AM - The day will commence with awards ceremony and the start of the New York to Philadelphia stage of the East Coast Messenger Stage Race

Everyone knows Eugene, Oregon is the running capital of the world: Track Town USA, where Prefontaine helped give birth to Nike. As a result the city now has miles and miles of running trails. Well, it turns out that it's also got lots of bike lanes and bike paths. So many, in fact, that the League of American Bicyclists ranks Eugene as the fifth best city in the U.S. for bicycling (behind Boulder, Portland, Davis, and Corvallis).

Well today we're proud to launch one more free resource to help Eugeneans get around by bike: Ride the City - Eugene. Ride the City is like other routing applications except that it prioritizes bike paths, bike lanes, and shared roads to give you safe bike routes: Put in a start address and and end address and Ride the City will tell you how to get from point A to point B on a bike.

Critical Mass - Atlanta. Image from Dustin C

We're in high summer and the streets are steamy. In the south, the streets are even hotter and more humid where it's probably really hard to ride a bike during this time of the year. The hot summers may be partially to blame for the low numbers of bicyclists, but it has a lot more to do with expansive cities that were primarily designed for the car. But things are changing little by little and the south is becoming more friendly to bicycles.

We're doing our part to support this paradigm shift today by launching Ride the City - Atlanta. With Ride the City, bicyclists in Atlanta now have one more tool to find a safe way to bike from one part of town to another using the web or mobile applications (available on iPhone or Android).

FRANÇAIS

Tomorrow is the start of the 2011 Tour de France. How exciting! From now until July 24th, the world's best cyclists will complete in 21 stages covering a total of 2,132 miles. Riders in this, the 98th Tour de France won't need bicycling directions, of course, because they get a huge caravan of vehicles shepherding them around the countryside. For the non-elite Frenchman, however, getting around on a bicycle can sometimes be a bit of a challenge...until now.

Today we are happy to announce the launch of Ride the City - Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, and Nice. Now bicyclists in France's largest cities have one more tool to navigate the streets safely.

image from Average Joe Cyclist

Today we're happy to announce that Ottawa is receiving one more tool to help make bicycling a bit easier in Canada's fourth largest city. Please welcome Ride the City - Ottawa (available in English and French). Ride the City is a bicycle routing web and mobile service (iPhone & Android) that helps bicyclists to navigate city streets; it's based on Open Street Map, the volunteer effort to map the world so anyone can contribute to Open Street Map to make it better for all bicyclists.

It's Bike Week in Brisbane through March 20th. What better way to celebrate bicycling than with the launch of Ride the City: Brisbane and Ride the City: Newcastle! In addition to bike routes the Ride the City map displays nearby bike shops and bike hire locations, including CityCycle locations in Brisbane. (If we're missing your business, please let us know.)

image from aucklandcyclechic.blogspot.com Here in NYC, we're in the thick of winter with snow storms every week, it seems. But on the other side of the world it's mid summer. In many parts of Australia, the average high these days is 80F (27C). That makes for great bicycling weather (if it's not too hot). For bicyclists in Australia, 2011 will be a year for easier bicycling because today we launch Ride the City - Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, and Adelaide!