federal agencies offering capital bikeshare memberships?

[Emm]

Got this email at work. Has anyone heard of these programs and if so, can you offer more info? What departments are offering it? What is the actual benefit?

“Erin- a couple of folks have been asking about Capital Bikeshare benefits. Some federal agencies are apparently providing memberships to encourage fitness. Have you heard anything?”

It doesn’t look like the $20/month federal employee bike subsidy can be used towards bike share from what I can see in regulations, so I don’t think it’s that.

[PotomacCyclist]

If my employer wanted to pay for a CaBi membership, I wouldn’t turn them down. But I don’t know the specifics of this.

I found this older announcement. Different agencies can have different arrangements for CaBi memberships.

http://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2010/10/agencies-launch-bikeshare-program/32488/

[chris_s]

@Emm 126457 wrote:

Got this email at work. Has anyone heard of these programs and if so, can you offer more info? What departments are offering it? What is the actual benefit?

“Erin- a couple of folks have been asking about Capital Bikeshare benefits. Some federal agencies are apparently providing memberships to encourage fitness. Have you heard anything?”

It doesn’t look like the $20/month federal employee bike subsidy can be used towards bike share from what I can see in regulations, so I don’t think it’s that.

Sounds like some agencies are joining in as a “corporate members”. Details here: http://www.capitalbikeshare.com/partners

OPM and Interior are on the list under Gold Partners, for instance.

[chris_s]

@Emm 126457 wrote:

Got this email at work. Has anyone heard of these programs and if so, can you offer more info? What departments are offering it? What is the actual benefit?

“Erin- a couple of folks have been asking about Capital Bikeshare benefits. Some federal agencies are apparently providing memberships to encourage fitness. Have you heard anything?”

It doesn’t look like the $20/month federal employee bike subsidy can be used towards bike share from what I can see in regulations, so I don’t think it’s that.

Sounds like some agencies are joining in as a “corporate members”. Details here: http://www.capitalbikeshare.com/partners

OPM and Interior are on the list under Gold Partners, for instance.

[Emm]

@chris_s 126463 wrote:

Sounds like some agencies are joining in as a “corporate members”. Details here: http://www.capitalbikeshare.com/partners

OPM and Interior are on the list under Gold Partners, for instance.

Thank you! I forwarded this information on. I’m pretty sure HHS wont go for it–getting a CABI location installed on the building’s grounds was a struggle enough. But perhaps my small sub-component will look into it if we’re lucky.

[ginacico]

Emm,

I instigated NatGeo’s* corporate partnership with Capital Bikeshare years ago. We’re at Silver level, which means my discounted annual CaBi membership is $50 of which the company pays half. And I’ve met people from several Federal agencies who also have a deal with CaBi.

It comes down to estimating the cost to your agency for subsidizing CaBi memberships, and committing to a budget. How many do you think would join, and who is eligible? How much would HHS pay? The more you can do to help get ballpark numbers and think through the logistics of how the program would work, the better chance of success you’ll have. Talk to your benefits manager, but go in armed with good information.

Also, find a contact at goDCgo and get on their communications list. Once or twice a year they host a breakfast seminar with DC companies to talk about challenges and success stories in promoting alternate transportation options. It’s always a fun event, and you’d get lots of useful information.

*NatGeo is a nonprofit, not affiliated with the Federal government.

[dasgeh]

I believe rcannon’s knows something about this…

[dbb]

With Mr. Cannon’s help (he and his agency pioneered the effort), HUD rolled out CaBi two years ago. We became a gold member (the next tier up had unknown costs as the corporate member assumed the overtime and damage costs). We bought 200 memberships for $10K ($50 each) and had a random drawing to award them as we had 380 employees sign up. Because the transit subsidy is recaptured from our staff at the end of each month, we feel that just a couple of days a month will offset the cost.

We have worked with other agencies to help them move forward (just like Mr Cannon did with us).

PM me if you need more details.

[oldbikechick]

My agency has it as part of the health and wellness program. I use Cabi to go back and forth to meetings that I would otherwise have taken metro or a cab to get to. So, the agency has definitely made back the price of my membership and then some. And it is so much faster and more enjoyable to use the bike to get to and from meetings.

[lordofthemark]

USDOT just did an employee survey on this. Ironic we are following on this, but better late than never.

[Emm]

Thanks everyone! This is super helpful. I forwarded it onto our human capital staff. They’re considering doing a survey to see what interest is. We’re a small group (160-180 feds), so we’ll have to see what interest is in our staff, and how much CABI would charge for each membership based on what our interest level is. It looks like it might be a relatively inexpensive moral booster, so I’m hopeful that as the budget director I can dig up funds SOMEWHERE…

[dbb]

The CaBi estimate of uptake was 5% of the staff. We estimated that to be about 200 employees and we had 380 apply. To be honest, some applied under the “if its free, its for me” school

PM me with an email address and I’ll send you the stuff we developed, including the procurement SOW and the sole source justification

[dasgeh]

@dbb 126527 wrote:

The CaBi estimate of uptake was 5% of the staff. We estimated that to be about 200 employees and we had 380 apply. To be honest, some applied under the “if its free, its for me” school

PM me with an email address and I’ll send you the stuff we developed, including the procurement SOW and the sole source justification

Can you send it to me, too, please?

[tw30189]

@oldbikechick 126494 wrote:

My agency has it as part of the health and wellness program. I use Cabi to go back and forth to meetings that I would otherwise have taken metro or a cab to get to. So, the agency has definitely made back the price of my membership and then some. And it is so much faster and more enjoyable to use the bike to get to and from meetings.

Hi, I had sent you a PM the other day – I would like to know more about how your agency is funding Bike share through its health and wellness program.

Could you explain this to me – or is there a person you could refer to me so I can contact them?

my email is tim.wisner@gsa.gov my phone is 404-909-2427 ( I am in a class for the next three days so I cannot answer immediately)

Thank you,

Tim

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