To launch your bike-friendly workplace, try staging a bike to work day. Get as many people as you can to bike to work together on a certain day and feature the ride in the company newsletter.

Maintain your commitment to the promotion of cycling programs by providing incentives to employees who choose to bike to work.

Suggested Incentives

• Relax the company dress code on specified days for people who wish to bike to work.
• Organize a bike to work breakfast. Simply providing a healthy breakfast choice to employees who choose to bike to work can go a long way to promoting good-will with your bike commuting employees.
• Offer incentives to employees who pledge not to use company motor vehicle parking on certain days of the week when you have a high concentration of customer or client visits.
• Create a kit for beginning bikers that includes a water bottle, tire patch kit, and a trail map of the area (City of Windsor Trail map is available from the Parks and Recreation Department).
• Work out a special discount at local bike shops for people who work for your company.
• Start a program that will connect new bike commuters with fellow bike commuters in their area. Creating a bike buddy program will encourage other commuters who live in those areas to try bike commuting.
• Purchase a company bike for employees to sign out for commuting test runs, local meetings and short errands. Painting your company name on the bike fenders and rails can provide additional advertising for your business. Be sure to stock helmets, reflective gear, and bike locks.
• Organize a lunchtime biking seminar. Commuters who are better educated in the rules of the road are better prepared to be out on the road. Contact your local bike shops for guest speakers or ask your employees what areas of bike commuting they would like to explore.
• An internal commuter challenge can be a great way to get your employees, who may not otherwise bike to work, involved in cycling activities.
• Make employees who live too far to bike to work aware of the bike racks on local buses. Encourage your local muncipality to create and mark local bike routes.
• Make sure that your employees are aware of the benefits that you offer for biking to work by e-mail or posting signs.

Suggestions for building on your success

• Give gift certificates to employees who have made the effort to make the plan a success. Take an ad out in the newspaper alerting clients to your bike-friendly policies.
• Create an internal web page with news for bike commuters.
• Release a company plan to show employees where you began with your bike plan and your goals for the future regarding promotion of bike commuting.
• Follow your initial survey with annual surveys to determine the number of employees who have become bike commuters in the past year.

Useful Links:

For more information about organizing bike to work activities, visit the following sites:

Bike to Work Victoria - http://www.biketoworkvictoria.ca/d/btww_leaders_info.pdf

BUGs at Work - http://www.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca/tmp/BUGmanual2002/BUG-english-short.pdf

Toronto – Bike to Work Week Planning Guide - http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/bikeweek/organizing.htm

Arlington Transportation Partners - http://www.commuterpage.com/atp/ben-biking.cfm