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Entries tagged: Bike Commuting

This month, Boston joins the ranks of cities like Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago and Washington DC as it rolls out a new citywide bike sharing program called Hubway Bikeshare. As more U.S. cities consider these popular programs and the number of bike users on the streets increases, one of the biggest concerns in city officials’ minds is safety. As voiced in a recent Boston Globe article, concern is particularly high in Boston, due to the city’s skinny lanes, cobblestone roads, and unpredictable drivers.

Lucky for Boston, MassBike is on top of this concern.

As part of the Hubway Bikeshare program, advocates at MassBike are ramping up bicycle safety efforts, teaming with the City of Boston to offer free bike safety classes for all Hubway users. The idea behind this new initiative is to quickly get Hubway riders up to speed on all aspects of bike commuting.

The one-hour workshops will go over the rules of the road, strategies for staying safe and tips for staying comfortable. According to Price Armstrong, MassBike’s education program manager, the class will be an adapted version of the group’s proven Commuter Workshop Series and will reflect the themes embodied in the Same Roads Same Rules campaign.

“We at MassBike are really excited to be working with the City of Boston to offer these free classes,” Armstrong says. “There will be 600 shared bikes and thousands of bicyclists out on the streets of Boston that might not have been there before. We’re trying to make sure these bicyclists get where they are heading safely, with confidence, and cooperatively with the other users of the road.”

Information about the free classes is currently available on the Hubway safety page. Stay tuned to MassBike’s newsfeed for up-to-date information about this initiative.

by Camie Rodan

Have you ever lost a set of keys and rummaged around only to find them in the freezer? I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that this has happened to me, which is what caused me to chuckle when I read this week about the Freeze My Keys event from the Bicycle Commuters of Anchorage. There is, of course, much more to this event than losing a set of keys in the freezer.

In a move to encourage more bike commuting, support local business and to prepare cyclists for the bike-riding season in Anchorage, BCA is hosting Freeze My Keys for the second year in a row. The event runs from April 1 through May 1, 2011, and provides willing participants with two options for participation. The first option asks participants to freeze an old, unimportant car keys to symbolize their intent to completely rely on their bicycle instead. The second option simply asks participants to freeze their car keys for a few hours at a time and ride their bicycle more than normal.

BCA is kicking off Freeze My Keys tomorrow at Modern Dwellers Chocolate Lounge in Anchorage. Event participants can bring an old key that they will symbolically place in deep freeze after a group pledge to bike commute more often. The event is sponsored by a myriad of small, local businesses, which have donated locally produced participation prizes. Each participant earns point by visiting these businesses and will receive a scorecard to track their progress.

Read more about Freeze My Keys and the BCA here.

Ian Klepetar has been living out of a tent — and building a business empire.

No, he doesn’t have a degree in economics. He’s got no desire to fatten his bank account. Klepetar’s web of nearly 900 businesses is strictly aimed at enriching communities by increasing bicycling.

Three years ago, Klepetar started Bicycling Benefits, an incentive program designed to reward individuals who ride their bikes to shop and dine, and the businesses that support them.

The concept is like any other discount program. In the dozen cities that have embraced Bicycling Benefits, residents can buy a sticker for $5. They slap that sucker on their bike helmet and, when they patron participating businesses, they get a deal on their purchase. Cyclists like keeping some extra money in their pockets. Businesses like expanding their customer base and increasing client loyalty. And the whole community benefits from the shift toward sustainable transportation.

Last week, Klepetar stopped by our office in Washington, DC. Laid back in his t-shirt and board shorts, the 32-year-old had hitchhiked the 200 miles to the nation’s capital after running a 50K trail race in Pennsylvania. Since he started Bicycle Benefits, Klepetar has embraced the rambling lifestyle, spending the majority of 2010 pedaling between towns to pitch his idea by day and bedding down as an opportunistic urban camper each night.

The Saratoga Springs native isn’t new to cycling, but says he’s still a relative newcomer to the world of advocacy. “I was a recreational cyclist,” he says. “I did some mountain biking and racing, but it was a couple of events that really pushed me into advocacy. A cyclist and pedestrian were hit in my home town, and I thought, ‘Something has to happen.’”

The kernel of Bicycling Benefits, he says, started with his sister’s stint in Salt Lake City. In that Utah town, advocates were working on a “Pedal Pass” with the similar goal of getting businesses to provide discounts to bicyclists. Klepetar had never studied business, but he liked the idea. And he had some ideas to improve on the innovative concept.

He decided to make a sticker instead of a card, so folks couldn’t cheat the system and flash their pass after cruising to the store in their SUV. Klepetar also realized the businesses had to be financially invested, otherwise the stickers might gather dust in cash register drawers. Instead of simply giving away the stickers and hoping the participating businesses promoted them, he decided to charge $2.50 per sticker. But when a customer buys one for $5, the business gets to keep the remaining $2.50.

Once he refined the concept, Klepetar took his show on the road. And from Montpelier, Vermont, to Los Angeles, California, Bicycle Benefits is blowing up. More than 900 businesses have joined. More than 12,000 — yep, thousand — stickers have been sold.

“I’ve gotten great feedback,” he says. “A lot of the time I’ll be checking in on businesses and I’ll be a little reluctant to stop into a bar or a retail place after I haven’t been there in year. But then I’ll walk in the door and they’ll say, ‘Where have you been? We need more stickers. Everyone loves the program. It’s the greatest!’ Or I’ll be checking in on a business and there will be someone in front of me using the program. They hear that I started it and they tell me that they go to all these new places now, or they go on a Bicycle Benefits trip every Sunday to check out a new place that’s signed on. Or they’ll tell me they were a recreational cyclist, but now they’ve started biking to the grocery store to get 5 percent off. That’s what keeps me motivated and focused on this. The program is working.”

In fact, it’s working so well that Klepetar is looking for help in spreading Bicycling Benefits from coast to coast. The way he sees it, the program can boost the visibility and efficacy of local and state bicycle advocates. “I like to think of it as a good first step in bike advocacy,” he says. Bicycle Benefits is a highly visible campaign that scores media attention, gets more cyclists (wearing helmets) out on the streets and builds powerful coalitions to push for better infrastructure. “So, when the city puts out the idea of bike lanes and five out of the eight businesses along that stretch have signed on and they see their customers are cyclists,” Klepetar suggests, “it’s easier to win their support.”

Intrigued? Want to bring Bicycle Benefits to your town? Just drop Klepetar a line at ian@bicyclebenefits.org and he’ll get you started.

The logic is like that old proverb. Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day; teach him how to fish and he’ll eat forever.

The folks at the Cascade Bicycle Club tweaked that idea with a cycling perspective. Organize a ride and a Seattle resident may pedal for a day; give that resident her own wheels and she’ll commute forever.

Now in its second year, the Green Bike Program aims to do just that — get car commuters to replace auto trips with bicycle travel. And it’s reeling in results. Turns out, getting people to give up their beloved automobiles can be as easy as baiting the hook with equipment and education.

Back in May, Cascade recruited a few newbie cyclists for the Green Bike initiative, providing willing participants with bicycles, locks and helmets. Next, they schooled the amateur commuters on road safety and basic mechanics. Then, they extended a challenge: Commute on two wheels for 50 percent of your travel and that shiny new bicycle is yours to keep.

Sound like wishful thinking? Not by a long shot. An impressive 86 percent of participants are now proud owners of Green Bikes.

“This is an incredible result,” Chuck Ayers, executive director of the Cascade Bicycle Club, said in a statement. “In only three months, we’ve helped more than 30 people new to bike commuting become comfortable, confident, and competent cyclists. I don’t know of many other programs that can boast an 86 percent success rate.”

Among those new cyclists is Alex Fuentes, a teacher at Odyssey High School who converted her 25-mile commute from automobile to open-air. Last week, she joined other green bicyclists at a celebration led by Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen. The look on her face (pictured) says it all: Fuentes is hooked. “I love riding my bike to work,” she said, “and plan to keep it up the rest of my life.”

  Click here to read more about the Green Bike program.

GetDowntown is helping cyclists keep their commute up in the chilly winter months. The Ann Arbor-based organization has put together a handy Guide to Winter Commuting In Ann Arbor.

A few tid-bits:

• Windproof gear: Keeps you a lot warmer than just fleece
• Tires with spikes in them.
• Give yourself more time. When it gets really cold/snowy, it can slow you down.

Many more tips for cycling in winter months await! Check out the guide for more info on basic gear and practical hints and tips for winter commuting.

PITTSBURGH – The bike advocacy group BikePGH just released Bike Commuting 101 to share with commuters the basics of bike commuting. The booklet explores topics like choosing a bike, how it should fit, riding safe, useful accessories, and general information that enhances the bike commuting experience. Culling the combined input of BikePGH’s staff and long time members the guide focuses on the essential elements of bike commuting using the themes of convenience, comfort and safety. Illustrated by local artist Glen Johnson the guide not only provides practical advice, but it also presents the city in a fun graphic style.

“Bike commuting is not and all-or-nothing choice” says Program Manager Louis Fineberg. “You can ease into it. Try it once a month, maybe eventually once a week. More than likely once you start you’ll realize the benefits immediately and you’ll want to bike to work regularly.”

Since it’s start in 2003 BikePGH has hosted bike commuting workshops.  The guide compliments the workshop or stands on its own as an informative reference for all levels of riders.

Bike Commuting 101, Car Free Fridays, and similar initiatives are part of BikePGH’s efforts to engage local employers in supporting workers who want to bike to their jobs. “A work environment that welcomes bike commuters sends a strong message about the values of your workplace and reinforces the idea that Pittsburgh is a city that provides a high quality of life”, adds Fineberg. “Biking to work is different than driving and it requires some planning.” BikePGH is developing a Bike Friendly Employer program to assist employers in meeting this growing need.

This first edition of the guide is free and available through BikePGH, the city’s Bike/Ped Coordinator, the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, the Sprout Fund, and bike shops throughout Pittsburgh. Download or view the guide at http://www.bike-pgh.org/101. The guide’s official release will be during BikePGH’s annual member meeting on November 10th at the Union Project.