Businessweek published a list of bike-friendly companies, three of which were in our area:
In this eco-aware age, employers are increasingly rewarding staffers who leave their cars at home and pedal to work. It usually takes a nudge from an employee or two, "a squeaky wheel to get the process going," says Elizabeth Preston, spokeswoman for the League of American Bicyclists. Here, during national Bike to Work month, a look at a half-dozen bike-friendly companies.
Calvert Group, Bethesda, Md.
A manager of socially responsible mutual funds, Calvert offers its employees $350 toward the purchase of a bike. It also has shower facilities and allows workers to stash their wheels in their offices.
Discovery Communications, Silver Spring, Md.
The company, which sponsors the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team (co-owned by Lance Armstrong), also gives cycling employees $350—toward the price of a bike or for bike repairs. To provide lifts in an emergency, it also pays for memberships in a car-borrowing service.
Environmental Protection Agency, Washington
The agency is home to perhaps the plushest of all workplace bicycle lockups. The 100-bike facility at the Ronald Reagan Building has a motion detector that swings open large steel doors as riders approach. Cyclists punch in a code to enter the main bike-rack area, with its adjacent showers. "Why do we do this?" says spokesman Dale Kemery. "We're the Environmental Protection Agency."
Though I heard employees had to fight the EPA pretty hard to get the facility so don't expect your employer to follow suit easily. You'll probably have to start an employee bike commuter organization. IKEA is another company that could have made the list
Ikea, which late last year gave each of its employees a custom-made folding bicycle to reduce the number of employees who drive to work.
Though that was only in the UK. Come on IKEA USA, show us some love or I'm buing my Svort somewhere else.
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