We (Consider Biking) received a significant grant from the Columbus Foundation to fund our bold "2 by 2012" initiative. Our measurable goal is to increase the bike commutes in CBus from the current 0.7% to 2.0% by the City's bicentennial in 2012--almost a 3-fold increase.
On an individual level, we are encouraging our fellow citizens, adults and children, to bike to work and school at least two days per month. (If we could achieve this, it would equate to a 10% mode shift and we'd leapfrog over Portland and Minneapolis to claim the title of "Bicycle Capital of the U.S.")
We have lots of grassroots support for 2 by 2012 and now we're aiming to engage the corporate and non-profit community in the cause. We have developed a terrific program, with great tools and resources, to help companies encourage, educate and facilitate employees who wish to bike to work on occasion. We have a cutting edge software tool, called RideNet, that enables a company to creat a commuting team and each member of the team can log his/her commutes, see how much CO2 is being avoided, how many calories are being burned, etc. It also permits the team to engage with other commuters to exchange useful information and to keep their fingers on the pulse of the pedaling revolution in CBus. It's fun and easy to use and will help us build a sense of community. It will also enable us to extract data so we can track our progress toward our goal and respond to needs in the twowheeling community.
We also have a very sophisticated tool developed by a Fisher Business School MBA class on sustainability that enables a company to determine the impact (savings) on the bottom line by achieving a specified level of bike commutes by employees. The bike commuting "calculator" is very sophisticated, yet fast and easy to use. Companies will be amazed at the bottom line impact of achieving just a 3-5% mode shift. For a company with 1,000 employees, the savings is in excess of $500,000.
We will be doing the public launch of 2 by 2012 on September 30 from 6-8 pm at the offices of Consider Biking at 4041 N. High St in Clintonville. We hope to announce that evening that 30-40 local companies and non-profits have already signed up as "early adopters," so that we have some serious momentum to energize and get the community "rolling." We have 6 companies already signed up, with a dozen more in the queue, and 20-30 more asks in the works.
If your company or organization would like to be an early adopter, please contact me at dmorgan@hahnlaw.com and I'll explain the program and send you the Pledge to sign. It doesn't cost anything to participate (thanks to the generosity of the Columbus Foundation)--you just need to be willing to sign the Pledge and work with Consider Biking to take advantage of all the programs and resources we have to help your employees begin to safely bike to work a couple days per month.
We are convinced that active transportation will help us achieve personal, environmental and community health. It will also help us attract and retain new economy workers and the companies that wish to employ them.
C'mon and get on board 2 by 2012! We're changing our community for the better..........two wheels at a time.
The commuter tracking software is a great idea that already exists on the Bike to Work Challenge website. So much for collaboration in this town.
Posted by: Bill Johnson | September 16, 2010 at 07:56 AM
Hi Doug - took awhile to get these online, but there are some great shots of you at the CEO Challenge in May.
Slideshow at http://jodybikes.typepad.com/blog/2010/10/bike-to-work-ceo-challenge-photos.html
Posted by: Jody | October 19, 2010 at 05:52 PM