Folks, what has been your experience in getting others to start bike-commuting?

Me? I've gotten a few people to commute from time to time but I remain one of the few regular commuters at my work. I have gotten a lot -- a whole lot -- of inquiries but no real takers.

I live and work in flat, sunny, San Jose where there are no afternoon thunderstorms in the summer, no ice storms in winter, nothing below 40 degrees. If you were to get people to commute anywhere it'd be here.

What gives?

Maybe it is too easy, not enough challenge.

in silicon valley the status of the person is judged by the car they drive; it's almost as bad as southern cal. even i'm guilty of this shallowness when i visit companies in the valley; i take a quick scan of the parking lot to see if the people are "successful" enough to indicate that the company is doing well and hence will be around long enough to support the product we're thinking of buying.

mea culpa.

i'm trying to say that i think the prevailing attitudes regarding automobiles will negate the benefits of bike commuting, at least to south bay'ers.

to your other question, i've *almost* got another person to commute to work. he lives on the peninsula and cal trans in to the city. with the nice -- until today -- spring weather we've been having he's not to far away from taking the plunge!

bt

I persuaded a colleague to cycle in about twice a month but that's the best I've done.

Richard

In this city (Atlanta), we have a big portion of the populous who live out in the country-fried areas and have no problem driving 20, 40, 60 miles to work daily. Those people will never ever set their bums on a saddle.
The only thing that's ever worked for me was referring my roommate to a job position at my company (he doesn't have a car - he used public trans.) and then informing him that there was a lot of cycling involved in getting to work (even though I do own a car). It takes 85 minutes on the bus/train and it takes only 25 minutes on bicycle. Now, he commutes.

My Commute is only 4.5 miles and it takes me the same time to cycle or to drive, and the best thing is watching my workmates drive off then catching them up when they are waiting at traffic lights, and giving them a cheery wave as I pass them.

So far, no one I know at my workplace has adopted bicycle commuting yet. I remain a solitary cyclist.

Yet, I have seen more and more people take up walking for fitness. I like to think I had something to do with it--maybe they want to be fit, but are afraid of bicycling. But I did fitness walking for years before bicycling, and I also was afraid in the beginning (where do I ride? etc.) I think the fitness walking paved the way for my cycling.

Also, many people now ask me if I rode my bike that day, as if they are finally accepting the idea.

Since posting on these forums I have met many other commuting cyclists, some of whom are from Atlanta. And I see other commuting cyclists on the roads, too. So that's very good.

I guess being the only one at my workplace who bicycle commutes has it's positive sides: for one thing, before I started, nobody did it! So one is better than none.

Oh my word, I hope noone does that for our company! My car could be costing us business! (Especially since I had to repair the wing mirror with duct tape and epoxy...)

Yet another reason to cycle... Got to stop hiding behind a bust knee soon.

Ellie

I walked into the staff room at work last week and another staff member started talking about riding his bike into work and he said that i was an inspiration to him! I am now forming a cult and all donations will be graciously accepted.:angel:

I've tried to "convert" coworkers and some of my neighbors. They all give the same excuses: too hot, too cold, what if it rains, too much traffic, I'm out of shape, my bike is so old, I'm too old...

What they are really saying is, "I like a life of air-conditioned (or heated) comfort at home, at work, and while I'm travelling there."

They rarely get out in the heat or cold other than to do the necessary yard work or household maintenance.

Too bad they're missing out on so much of life.

i don't think i've ever "actively" converted someone, but i think my dedicated commuting encouraged some others who were already cyclists to try commuting or some part-time commuters to try full-time.

when i was in Portland it was pretty easy to "encourage" someone since the city is good for commuting and the attitude is very pro-cycling and pro-environment and the strong CAR-CULTURE of most of suburban america is comparibly weak in Portland.

also at the university i got some students who already rode bikes but only on campus to "commute" for off-campus stuff when they had never thought you could ride across town to the dentist or the shopping center or whatever (Texas... where you drive from one end of the strip mall parking lot to the other b/c who would walk when you can sit in air conditioning in style and listen to radio and look cool all at the same time getting someplace?)

I usually don't even try. If someone asks me about it, I definately encourage them and give them any advice that they need. Here's the problem: People see you come up to them and try to get them to commute via bike. They see you as some environmentalist health-nut elitist cyclist and resent you trying to change their ways. Maybe I'm being overly cynical.

Anybody else experienced this reaction?

Not me, because I'm quick to point out that I do it for ME ME ME !!! All the other benefits are ancillary. It's solely about ME ME ME !!!

BTW, I don't "actively" attempt to get others to commute but there are enough people that profess an interest, but fail to take that first step or continue past the first ride or two, that initially led me to ask the question.

Again, many of the reasons used (e.g., weather, hills) typically don't apply here in San Jose.

I had a co-worker say she would consider biking in if she had a decent bike, but it's clear that getting one isn't high on her priority list. I suggested to a library patron who was asking questions about my biking, that she could bike in, but first she said that walking was hard enough on her knees...I pointed out that walking is actually harder on your joints than biking. Then she just laughed and said that since she had a car, she was going to use it. Oh well...


And re parking lots--I sometimes check the parking lot of companies. If the lot is filled with nice cars, it might be worth applying for a job, since it's clear the employees are well paid. If the cars aren't so good, the pay is probably low. The worst collection of rusty wrecks I've seen were in the parking lot of Animax, a company that renders down dead animals. Ecch, I would think they'd have to pay people a fortune to work there!