The Post's other Bike to Work Week Articles

So as not to bury the lead, I'm putting this at top.

BikeArlington and the District's goDCgo are sponsoring a Bike-Friendly Business Workshop from 2 to 4 p.m. June 9 at Arlington Transportation Partners, 1501 Wilson Blvd., Suite 1100. Companies can learn how to make their workplaces more amenable to cycling employees.

What's in it for the employers? I asked Chris Eatough, BikeArlington's program manager. "People who bike to work are healthy and happy, ready to do a good productive day," he said. "They may be the only people who actually enjoy their commute these days."

There are levels of encouragement that employers can provide, Eatough said.

I had some criticism for the Post's big car-vs-cyclists article for Bike to Work Week and now I have a little more because I saw the print copy which had some additional inaccurate statements. It stated that fatalities were down 75% since 1975 (It's down 28%, from 1003 to 716 - not 714 as they reported). They said there was one DC cycling death in 2008. There were actually two. It also cites the "9 out of 10 cyclists killed weren't wearing a helmet" stat, that even the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute can't source. It may be based on FARS data, in which case what they're saying is that in 1 out of 10 fatalities they know that the person had a helmet on and in the other 9 they don't know since this is often unrecorded - but the numbers IIHS uses don't match the FARS data, so who knows where it comes from.

But the next day, Dimetrius Simon wrote a better article about bike commuting and employer incentives. There wasn't much new in it, but for a casual reader on the subject it gave a lot of information.

According to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, 1 percent of residents in the area cycle to work, and communities are encouraging more people to ride.

Three percent of D.C. residents bike to work, said Jim Sebastian, who manages the city's bicycle program and bikes to work three times a week.

In Alexandria, the City Council has approved $7 million over the next 10 years for pedestrian and bicycle safety, including bike lanes, markings and trails.

"In order to attract active people and a young generation, we need to provide things they are attracted to," [Rollin Stanley, Montgomery county planning director] said. "Mobility is key."

And they highlight Toole Design's bike incentive program (They're a League-recognized bicycle friendly business)

Employees at Toole who bike to work receive up to $200 in gift cards every six months. Patten prefers REI gift cards, which he can use to buy more bike equipment. Amazon and iTunes gift cards are also popular among employees, said Jennifer Toole, president of the company.

And they DON"T reimburse for parking. I actually expected more than 20% to bike to work there.

At the American Society of Landscape Architects in Northwest Washington, the 43 employees are offered the IRS-backed reimbursement, plus an extra $50 a year.

And Robert Thomson had one on how to make bike commuting happen. 

Klein said he hopes to get 5 percent of commuters biking to work over the next few years. Motorists think about that and wonder why a government would take away street space from the them and give it to a relatively small number of cyclists.

Do they, or does AAA just say that they do?

Klein said cities need not only to satisfy current demand for this cycling infrastructure but also to create an environment that will produce more commuter cycling.

"It's about changing the way people feel about the city and how they get from point to point," he said.

I have to say, despite some weirdness in some articles, the Post deserves credit for all the work they put in to covering biking and bike commuting in DC last week.

Comments

[Richard Layman]

wow, now I really want to get a job at Toole Design... gift cards!