How Was Your Commute Today?

[7rider]

In honor of said Bike To Work Day (May 21), we hosted a "Pre-BTWD Seminar" this morning in our Fitness Center. This is the 3rd year we've done this and we had 6 attendees - an average haul - 4 of whom had never biked to work before. We had a woman from the League of American Bicyclists talk about confident commuting - going over equipment, riding in traffic and such. We had a bunch of handouts on road rules, work area facilities, benefits of cycling, and stuff like that. Lastly, we had my bike - which I actually rode today - as a demo bike, showing off its lights, bells, rack, panniers.
Next week, we'll have a morning coffee for commuters - with coffee and bagels and giveaways. We have a competition going on with Discovery Communications - the cable channel is headquartered right up the hill from our office. We'll be trying to beat them with a percentage bike commuted on BTWD. Given their underwhelming response to our challenge, I'm hoping we'll do okay.
Lastly, a guy who works for EPA, who's working at our office for a few months came to me looking for bike facilities. Those smug EPA'ers! They get a Silver Bike Friendly Business designation from LAB and they get all haughty about how, why, they thought ALL government agencies had fancy bike rooms and free showers. All he had seen of our humble little agency out in the low-rent area outside the District was a member-only Fitness Center and bikes locked to railings by elevators. But I did show him, in our GSA building next door, we DID have a runners locker room that offered free showers and bike racks in a guarded garage that was so secure, a bike that was unlocked but near the racks, has been sitting their for about 5 years, and no one's lifted it. So, we redeemed ourselves in his eyes!
An attempt at a Bicycle Friendly Business designation is on the short list for us this - or next - year.