Bike to Work Week!

[shootingstar]

I should add that the employees who picked up the bike maps from me at that, were all drivers but I noticed when the months got warmer a few did cycle to work. Most of these converts lived in suburbs but also were ex-patriate employees direct from Germany, abit more cycling oriented.

They knew how complex my much longer distance commute was by only cycling part way. (Most of it from bike locker near aboverground commuter train to home.) And they knew how dedicated I was..because I was WALKING from the bus stop with my cycling gear on after a 1/2 hr. bus ride. (No point cycling in, 15 min. ride through a jumble of construction mess wasn't worth it.) They knew I didn't care what they thought how ...strange this might look.

By the 3rd year I was employed by the firm, the number of bikes at our construction site tripled...which made it around 8-9 bikes. Approx. 75 employees at this site with 100 other employees scattered all over 5 other work site locations. Not sure about the other work sites but I was aware of 2-3 per site interested in cycling.

It takes a few years to convert some people. But if you, yourself are dedicated and happy to cycle, and people see how fit you are, the enthusiasm will rub off at least 1 other person. Trust me. You need to be happy and patient.

[uforgot]

I'm a teacher, so I always offer a free Gatorade to anyone cycling to school. We then have the local paper take their picture. I usually get a pretty good turnout!

[Eden]

Out here we don't just have bike to work week - its bike to work month... aka the Group Health Commute Challenge
(yes cycling is pretty big out here)

At my place of work (a hospital, so yes there are a lot of workers) there are more than 40 teams of 4 to 10 people. You are supposed to pledge to ride at least 5 times during the month, but most people do it much more. There's also a relatively friendly, but highly competitive atmosphere about the whole thing within my workplace. I'm a regular bike commuter and so are most of the people on my team, as well as two of us being racers (the other guy is a pro.... as well as team doctor, and also a surgeon.... I don't know where he finds the time...)

As far as how to encourage people who come from fairly far away - multi-modal commutes! My workplace gives *everyone* a 3 county bus pass. They try to make it as easy as possible to not drive... Getting people to try alternate commuting is the hardest part, but often after they've tried they often like. Saving all that money on parking (you have to pay for parking at my place of work - you get paid if you don't park), gas, maintenance and not sitting in traffic while you get exercise has its rewards.