Chris L

This morning I had just arrived at work, put my bike away and was walking away to get changed when one of my co-workers arrived...

...on a bike.

Apparently he figured he wanted to lose some weight and figured riding to work was the best way to do it. I've been with this company for almost a year, and have been the only one cycling to work for all this time. Maybe I'm making an impression.

KrisA

1 of my coworkers is a fair weather rider. Some of my coworkers drive their cars less than 10 blocks to come to work.

pinerider

I work in a satellite office with a total of 17 people working here. In spring,summer and fall 3 of us bike to work! I am the only winter commuter but a participation rate of 17.6% for the rest of the year is darn good, I'd say! One of my fellow bike commuters is a world class biathlon competitor (masters category) (does that make him a biathlete??) and most days rides about 40 km roundtrip to work then goes out for a 60km ride after work!

Pete Clark

I firmly believe that persistance is influential, even if it's very, very slow. When people see the results, they are convinced, but sometimes it takes time.

Then again, if people don't want to get it and start some kind of exercise program and stick with it, they are the ones who'll pay the price by metamorphosing into Jabba the Hut.

MichaelW

A 100% increase in cycling within one year sound quite impressive.

Sailguy

There is a small cycling community here. I am the only one who commutes regularly. One other guy commutes in good weather a couple times a week.

A third person commutes over the pass during training for triathalons a couple times a week.

And the fourth does very serious rides on the weekends and often does rides up the mountains at lunch.

I want to justify custom company jerseys, but with the four of us its a tough sell. The company colors would definately be awesome on a bike jersey tho. (Crimson red and black)

RonH

Chris, you deserve the credit.
Example is the best teacher.

Puckloki

Ten years ago (ouch) when I started working where I work, I was the only person who commuted by bike. Now, there are seven of us, four of whom do it rain or shine. I don't know how much of it is me, but I can tell you that it definitely makes a huge impression on the whole company. On National Ride to Work Day, the entire upper management team, myself included, rode to work as a group.

SteveE

Check out the Los Gatos Bicycle Racing Club or the Cat's Hill Criterium pages on the web.

Chris L

I think that was the thing about yesterday. The weather forecast promised some rain (would have been the first rain of 2003), but he rode anyway.

Pete Clark

It's very satisfying to see someone else catch on. It's like having a child.

Today, I drove to work. By Atlanta standards, it was darn cold, about 8 degrees F with a below zero wind chill.

I can't count the number of people who just had to say,
"Did you ride your bike to work today? I didn't think so..."

:irritated

Big mistake. Never tell me I can't--or I will, just to prove you wrong.

:thumbup:

nemo

Where I work there are mabe a total of 50 employees out of those 50 I interact with mabe 15 on a daily basis. One lives 30 some odd miles away so cycling for her is out. of the other 14 I can list 6 that are way to lazy or otherwise disinclined to ride to work. one of my coworkers is about convinced to start another lives 4 stinkin blocks away and drives! I am trying the ol guilt trip thing on him.... The great thing Is one of our leads (kinda like lower managment I guess) lives farther away and is almost convnced as well :thumbup: to get even one of them to start would be awesome! I think it helps that I cycle In my regular clothes and arrive on time or early every morning....

caloso

I think that's great. Last year I sent out an office-wide email re Bike to Work Day and got zip for response. I'm going to try it again this year but if I get the same, I'll bag it.

Maybe I'll go the other route and try reverse psychology: "Oh, you wouldn't want to ride to work. It's not for you..."

Rich Clark

I work in a downtown natural science museum, and a lot of us bike-commute. There are a lot of reasons -- science/academia's low pay scales which encourage economy; the fact that our work confronts us every day with the desperate need to cut back on activities that damage the ecosystem; institutional support in the form of no restrictions on in-office bike parking; Philadelphia's horrible downtown parking/commuting environment (there's no employee parking at all).

There are only a handful of our ~200 staff who ride through the winter, and those are mostly the ones that only have a couple of miles to cover, but there must be 30-40 cyclists in the warmer months.

And most of the rest use public transportation. In my department, there is nobody who drives to work regularly.

I guess the obvious conclusion is that corporate culture and location have a lot to do with it.

RichC

Hants Commuter

Amongst the day staff at my place there is about 9 or 10regular year-round bike commuters.

I know there a few more on the 24 hour operation side.

Come spring and summer the bike racks start getting very full.

We do have a Triathelete that occasionally cycles the 40 miles (64 Km) into work

HalfHearted

Holy smokes! Is that one way? If so that's only two miles less than my commute, drat, there went my excuse!

John

Hants Commuter

It is indeed one way. What he normally does is bring his bike in on a rack. Then cycle home in the evening. He then Cycles back in the morning. He is seriously fit.

Pete Clark

I am still the only person in our downtown central offices that bike commutes. I'm not sure how many people work here, but there are two buildings and about 13 floors of us here.

It seems to me that the environment Rich works in, with all its
regular cyclists and non-driving commuters, might have a snowball effect, producing more and more bicycle commuters. Thbirks once proposed a cycling city where cyclists converged, supposing that the strong presence of a cycling culture would be the most powerful force in advancing bike commuting and transportational cycling. Perhaps Philadelphia is an example of this principle.

Sounds great, to me!

Rich Clark

Not Philadelphia per se, I don't think. While there are always plenty of cyclists present downtown, due to the proximity of various college campuses and the beginning of the main bike route ot of the city*, Philly is as gridlocked and car-choked as any city I've ever been in, and more than many.

But individual institutions and companies can change their cultures, mostly by changing what's perceived as conferring status. Here, driving to work in a Lexus would set you apart and draw scorn. SUV owners dare not identify themselves.

In a corporate environment, effecting change would be a lot harder, because cycling is so widely seen as something you do when you can't afford better. Management has to be convinced to offer incentives instead of resistance, encouragement instead of obstacles. And potential cyclists have to get past whatever social pressures keep people from arriving at work on bikes. I would think that there'd be a certain cachet in a financial manager showing up looking fit and lean, riding a custom Merlin. But only if in-office bike parking is permitted.

RichC

HalfHearted

And therein lies the rub. Corporations, especially in "profile" industries just can't be seen having offices "cluttered" with bikes, because then it reflects on the image the corporation is trying to project of being professional, top caliber, high class, and focused on clients needs to the exclusion of all else.

Plus, in-office bike parking is a nightmare to administer in a large organization because for every executive riding a well maintained Merlin you're going to have five or six guys who want to bring muddy mountain bikes to their offices or cubes, two or three who think the office is a good place to lube their chain, another dozen or so with rusty Huffys, and so on.

A far more workable solution, and one that corporations are far more likely to respond postively to, would be outdoor enclosed "bike lockers." You could make one that would fit in an average size parking place and securely store about ten bikes, with individual locking doors and enough room to get the bikes out without scraping the cars in adjacent parking spots.

That makes it a win-win situation for the corporation, especially in areas where there are cash incentives for the companies to reduce the number of employees who drive. I remember that about the time I was leaving LA they were talking about a law that would force companies with more than a certain number of employees to charge employees for parking in the hopes that would raise the number who carpooled or took public transport. Other things that had been proposed were directly fining companies when the percentage of employees who drove to work exceeded a threshhold value.

You can also point out that some health-insurance carriers are very interested in whether the company encourages employees to engage in healthy activities.

John

brennser

even more O/T but as a Netflix subscriber I have a question.....

why do so many your new releases have long waits or very long waits? I understand your membership is growing gangbusters but shouldn't you be cranking up your DVD orders to reflect this? More and more movies seem to have waits these days.

It also seems a little arbitrary - is it just me who's not getting a certain DVD? When I return a DVD is the systenm set up so you don't even look for a DVD that has a long wait or does the system actually check to see if one has been returned and is available?

In the long run I think if you don't start making more new releases available to folks on a timely basis they may abandon ship despite the convenience of it all.

Anyhoo I was just curious

willic

Persuading co-workers to cycle commute to work is one thing!!

But trying to get them to sustain it is a totaly different ball game!

Usually all it takes to dissuade them! is, one wet morning or windy or cold morning.
Next day there back in their cars.

Poguemahone

I dunno. Years ago, after I dropped out of art school and began working as a buyer at a local record store, I commuted to work via bicycle-- a trip of about ten miles each way, over moderately hilly terrain.
Most of the other workers at the store lived in the same neighbourhood I did, and on occasion one or the other of them decided that they, too, could ride their bikes to work. Usually they'd ride to work one way and wind up begging a ride home instead of making the return trip. Not a single one of them made it more than a day, as I recall.
Of course, they were all riding Schwinn Varsitys or like forty pound deadweights, given that was all they could afford on the pittance the store paid them. Most of said pittance seemed to go into maintenance on their fleet of rattle-trap automobiles, frankly. I was riding a PFN10E, a lot faster and lighter, but then, I had no car to support, either.
I still have a couple of employee evaluations from that store where the managers state in wonder that I rode my bike every day, and they couldn't figure out why I was never late or missed a day.
I teach at a local arts center now, and one woman on the staff and a couple of the other teachers ride, but the commute is shorter and I don't think my riding has had the slightest influence on anyone there-- although I do help out with the maintenance on their rides.

SallieW

My city (Fort Collins) has a program called "Smart Trips." It's purpose is to promote use of alternative transportation. They did an incentive program here at our office. Just for signing up and agreeing to ride or walk at least one day a week for 5 months (starting in Aug) we got all kinds of goodies! Then we got goodies for reaching milestones (number of days). It seemed like most of the regular commuters signed up and also a number of people I would never have thought would ride.

We actually have space (lack of) issues in our building's bike shed! I guess that's really a good thing! In the area where I work I'm one of 4 pretty regular year-round commuters and there are at least 5 or 6 more who ride when the weather's good. (This is a group of about 30). We also have one pretty regular walker.

Garlic

I may have a convert of my own. He approached me today to ask my advice on getting started. Would I mind sharing the locker that I keep my bike in etc.