Living a cycling lifestyle… the on-line movement.

[Dirt]

Oy folks. I thought I’d take a few minutes to write about a few ways to spread the word about cycling. This forum is a great first step. It is a great resource for people to see people who ride regularly, get questions answered and find some folks to ride with.

There are other programs on the internet that help inspire people to get out the door and on their bike. I play in a bunch of them in order to see what they’re like and maybe inspire a few people to ride.

Arlington’s car-free diet: http://www.carfreediet.com/

This is a program that I didn’t take part in, but I liked the look of it. They’ve got a great web site too.

Clif 2-mile challenge:http://2milechallenge.com/

The idea behind 2MC is to get people to leave their car home for short trips. 40% of all urban travel is less than 2 miles. 90% of those trips are done by car. What happens if people have a network that challenges them to eliminate 1, 2 7 or more of these short trips each week? Participants join a team that is associated with a charity and they gain points for each car trip they replace. More points can be gained by challenging others to leave their car at home. Any time I can do something good for charity by turning a pedal, I like to do my best.

Here’s a blog entry about yours truly and the 2MC: http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org/site/index.php/site/blog/3553/ It is worth noting that I am definitely NOT the points leader in this thing, though I think I’m probably high on the mileage list.

Plus3 Network:http://www.plus3network.com/

Plus3 is kind of a cool way to use your GPS to record cycling miles and have them benefit different charities. There are different charities that you can choose and different athletic activities that you can record to generate points that add up to charitable donations. I just record my cycling miles and my chosen charity is Bikes Belong. There are periodic challenges that you can take part in to win prizes. It is fun, though I don’t watch it as much as I do the 2 Mile Challenge.

Corporate/Employer challenges:

Many employers take part in different kinds of challenges to inspire their employees to ride. There are different challenges that are set up so that even small companies can take part in such programs as though they had the resources of a large company. The company I work for takes part one such challenge through Ridespring (http://www.ridespring.com). It is a program that gives people points for using alternatives modes for commuting. You can get points for carpooling, providing rides, taking metro or riding your bicycle. Each moth people’s points are converted to raffle entries and prizes are awarded. I’ve taken part in this for three years now, and won a few pretty cool prizes. It was a nice little bonus.

The less tangible inspiration to ride: EPA helps me out with that. They let us use their bike room. GSA lets us use their showers. Those things go a long way to make it really easy and fun to ride to work. I still rode every day when I didn’t have this kind of facilities. I didn’t smell as good, though. I used a lot more baby wipes. Not many companies do this in America that I’m aware of. I know quite a few in Europe that do.

Do any of you take part in such programs? Do any of your employers do things that inspire you to leave the car at home?

Ride on, folks!!!

Pete

Topic

[Joe Chapline]

@DCLiz 7761 wrote:

My biggest barrier to biking more often is also not commonly sited: I live in a walk-up apartment building. While the landlord has provided a space for bikes in a locked room in the basement, hauling the bike in and out of the basement, up a narrow stairway with four turns, and through three doors is time consuming and unpleasant. If I had a secure place to keep my bike out of the elements on street level, I’m sure I would bike more often.

Convenient bike parking might become the hot new feature for apartment and office buildings competing for renters. There was an article about this in the New York Times last week:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/realestate/the-bicycle-muscles-in.html?pagewanted=all

Security against theft and vandalism may be an issue, but I don’t think the weather is that big a deal. For many years I locked my bike up outside my house or apartment. I told myself it didn’t make sense to rent extra space just so the bike wouldn’t get wet. I didn’t buy expensive bikes and I wasn’t very attached to whatever I was riding. I’m fortunate to have a walk-out basement now, so my two bikes are indoors. The car still stays outside.

[Joe Chapline]

There was a good post yesterday on Commute by Bike about how to convert more people to cycling. It touches on Interbike, marketing to new cyclists, and utility vs. sport/recreational cycling.

[KLizotte]

@DCLiz 7761 wrote:

My biggest barrier to biking more often is also not commonly sited: I live in a walk-up apartment building. While the landlord has provided a space for bikes in a locked room in the basement, hauling the bike in and out of the basement, up a narrow stairway with four turns, and through three doors is time consuming and unpleasant. If I had a secure place to keep my bike out of the elements on street level, I’m sure I would bike more often.

Perhaps biking has gotten popular enough that some entrepreneurs (or the local government) will start building secure bike parking “sheds” in neighborhoods (a good use for small, empty lots) where users would pay a monthly fee to park their bikes. Obviously security would be paramount.

[DCLiz]

@KLizotte 8108 wrote:

Perhaps biking has gotten popular enough that some entrepreneurs (or the local government) will start building secure bike parking “sheds” in neighborhoods (a good use for small, empty lots) where users would pay a monthly fee to park their bikes. Obviously security would be paramount.

That would be so fantastic. I tried to get a locker at the Eastern Market Metro, but they wouldn’t even take my name for the waiting list. Obviously the demand is there!

[DaveK]

@DCLiz 8129 wrote:

That would be so fantastic. I tried to get a locker at the Eastern Market Metro, but they wouldn’t even take my name for the waiting list. Obviously the demand is there!

That’s strange, I remember reading that demand had dropped in half at that location since they jacked up the fees last year. Metro is doing a comprehensive bike parking study, I’d call them back if you haven’t spoken to them in a while.

[5555624]

@DCLiz 8129 wrote:

That would be so fantastic. I tried to get a locker at the Eastern Market Metro, but they wouldn’t even take my name for the waiting list. Obviously the demand is there!

I’m not sure whether the chart is from 2010 or from closer to the articles August date, but it appears lockers would be available at Eastern Market.

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/11554/after-price-increase-bike-locker-usage-plummets/#more

[Author]

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