Hey Treespeed,
Maybe the best thing you could hand out is actually a link to the Bikeforums.net commuting forum. I have a lot of years on the road but I actually credit this forum for providing the best bang for the buck in terms of cycling education.

Also, providing the link does not seem preachy at all. Rather, it can come off as a "hey, welcome to the club...here is a forum where hundreds of commuters from all over the world talk about all things commuting related. It is a wealth of information".

In fact, you might write just that....the education part will take care of itself once the newbie comes on here.