On May 20^th communities and companies across the country celebrate bike-to-work day. Check out how these companies are celebrating. This is a great day to encourage your employees and residents to take advantage of your existing biking initiatives or reflect on how to expand the community’s bikeability. According to the Nike initiative Designed to Move: Active Cities, communities that focus on such projects as increasing their bike friendliness are more competitive.

The good news is that biking initiatives are becoming more popular around the country. According to the 2015 ICMA Sustainability Survey, 63.5% of respondents have adopted or added walking and biking trails in the past five years. For example, the city of Redmond, Washington, to help increase the community’s bikeability, completed a bike audit and integrated the results into its transportation strategic plan.

While biking lanes and bike shares are two good methods to get your community biking, one of the best ways may be to show employees and other residents that local leaders are commuting on bikes. Lead by example by biking to work more often and not only on bike-to-work day.

Douglas Shontz

Knowledge Network Research and Content Development Associate