Originally Posted by
Steve B.
All the above:
- Place to securely lock a bike. The burden is on the employer for this and most dont want to spend money on this.
- Showers and places to change, locker room to store nice work clothes, same reason as above
- Takes time. You dont get as much sleep unless you are able to get to bed earlier, plus you get home later, can be problematic if you have kids, etc....
- Sometimes crappy cycling infrastructure. NYC is very proactive and has been, at improving this as they recognize the need to get people out of cars. It'll be curious if the new congestion pricing plan will send more folks to bikes
Just to be clear, even when all those amenities are readily available
and the place of business has an overall environmental vibe, it is an extreme uphill battle to get even a small fraction of the number of employees to ride a bike to work. We had a secure place to lock bikes in a badge access controlled campus and badge access controlled building. We had locker rooms with excellent shower and storage facilities. The facility was fed by roads that were highly bikeable. Our weather is very amenable to riding most of the year. And still people wouldn’t ride. Lots of people are very interested but that big “But…” raises it’s ugly head.
By the way, kids aren’t much of an excuse either. I helped raise two of them and still managed to ride about 1/2 of all work days since 1988 ( I only had records back to 1988). And there are lots of people who don’t have kids but they still find a place for that big “But…”
Finally, I could (and did) go on and on about the benefits of riding a bike to work to my co-workers. Health benefits, saving tons of money on gas as well as wear and tear on vehicles, esoteric moments while riding in the morning. I even offered to help them plan routes and ride in with them. Still that big “But…” was raised constantly. After about 25 or 30 years, I just gave up.