TDM + Local Bike Shops = ❤️

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Bicycle advocacy powerhouse People for Bikes recently shared a great blog post highlighting the mutual interests of transportation demand management (TDM) and local bike shops.

From TMA’s & TMO’s to universities, enterprises and municipalities, organizations concerned with shifting commuter behavior usually promote biking as a great alternative to single occupancy vehicle (SOV) commuting. In the TDM industry, we know bikes take up less space on roads and in parking lots, cut carbon emissions, and create happier commuters.

Local bike shops are also well aware of all these advantages of biking over driving, so for TDM programs looking for partners to help promote and empower bike commuting, local bike shops are a match made in transportation heaven.

The People for Bikes article mentions the success that our partner Sonos has had with their earn-a-bike program for employees, including partnering with local bike shops. The University of Louisville has also implemented a similar program for students who can trade parking passes for bikes.

When it comes to cycling-related TDM challenges and incentives, local bike shops are great resources for collaborations like prize donations and event leadership. Bike shops are eager to become known as the go-to location for local cyclists, especially new cyclists, and are often willing to be creative partners in bike-related TDM programming.

Here’s a great success story from the People for Bikes post:

Ginny Politz owns Bikesport in Trappe, Pennsylvania. When the Greater Valley Forge TMA approached her seeking prizes to distribute to local winners of the National Bike Challenge, Politz’s enthusiasm was instant. “I said ‘Yes, and why don’t we host a wine and cheese event to kick off the competition?'”

Bikesport’s early buy-in has paid off. “We are the only bike shop member, so they send everything our way. If they have a corporation contact them and say ‘we’d like to do a Lunch and Learn bike program,’ I get an email introducing me as the solution.”

Read more at the People for Bikes blog …

Why Indirect Emissions Matter and How Your Company Can Reduce Them

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Indirect emissions, also known as Scope 3 emissions in the framework of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, are an often-overlooked aspect of a business’s carbon footprint. They are defined as emissions from non-direct sources engaged in peripheral activities such as:

  • Shipping and product distribution
  • Goods and services procurement from outside parties
  • Waste disposal
  • Franchise management
  • Investments and leased asset management
  • …and, of course, commuting

While the exact percentage of business-related greenhouse gas emissions that come from commuting has been a notoriously gray area in terms of analysis, current estimates show that transportation is responsible for a staggering 20 to 27 percent of all GHG emissions in the United States. Obviously, businesses have a key role to play when it comes to reducing these emission levels, and one of the most direct ways to address the issue is to encourage smarter, more ecologically responsible modes of commuting.

To that end, here are some popular commuter management strategies that reduce employee reliance on single-occupancy vehicles:

  • Building a company-wide or cooperative, community-based rideshare program
  • Offering free or subsidized transit passes
  • Creating vanpool shuttle services linking company facilities with local public transportation hubs
  • Supporting bike-to-work initiatives by adding secure bike parking areas, lockers, and on-site showers
  • Participating in local and national challenge programs
  • Launching commuter gamification programs that reward participants for logging trips using alternative modes of transportation
  • Implementing earn-a-bike and/or parking cash-out programs

The transportation demand management professionals at RideAmigos can help you set up and run these and many other commuter programs as part of a concerted effort to help reduce the emissions generated by employee commutes. The RideAmigos software platform is also the ideal tool for tracking the impact of your commuter programs, and features a comprehensive suite of next-generation management and reporting tools.

Get started today and help your company build toward a cleaner, greener tomorrow.

How to Lower Employee Morale

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In their efforts to cut costs, reduce overhead expenses, and boost profit margins, employers must balance the need to maintain employee morale while dealing with these economic realities. Unfortunately, many actions (or inactions) taken by employers can unintentionally lower employee morale, rather than raise it. Many studies have shown that happy employees perform better and are more productive, and recent research also suggests that the modes commuters use to get to work can have a strong impact on overall levels of employee satisfaction.

With that in mind, here’s a look at some ways commuting-related workplace practices can lower employee morale and thus take a negative toll on company culture:

  • Only incentivizing solo driving. Free employee parking is a great perk, but if it’s the only commuting-related advantage you offer, you risk alienating team employees who prefer other modes of transportation. Instead, adopt a robust array of commuter support options, like subsidized transit passes and secure bike parking, to make sure everyone’s needs are met.
  • Not offering alternatives to costly parking. Parking is a major expense, and it’s one that a lot of companies deal with by (a) raising the prices of their products and services or (b) having employees pay to park in third-party lots. Parking cash-out programs, ridesharing initiatives, vanpools, and other alternative commuting modes can all be used to reduce parking demand and thus cut costs for employees and employers alike.
  • Inflexible policies on where and when employees work. Strict policies of this nature make it more difficult for employees to arrange carpools and can contribute to traffic congestion. Employees really appreciate the convenience that flexible hours and telework programs offer.

It’s important for employers to make a concerted effort to cultivate a businesslike yet vibrant, fun, and engaging company culture. People feel more invested in their jobs when the company feels more like a community, and building this kind of environment requires a focused, calculated effort that begins at the management level.

Commuting-related initiatives that help foster a workplace community include commuter challenge and incentive programs that encourage informal competition while engaging your workforce in pursuit of positive and beneficial objectives. Commute options like ridematching and bikepooling can also help to create relationships among co-workers. All these can easily be implemented using commuter management software.

RideAmigos can help businesses and organizations of all sizes avoid lower employee morale while building robust commuter programs with high impact levels. Get started with raising employee morale today!

Why Free Parking Isn’t Necessary for Happy Commuters

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Challenging assumptions behind workplace parking privileges

Employers tend to assume that providing employees with free parking is just a necessary cost of doing business. The underlying assumption is that free parking makes commuters happy, and happy commuters make for a happy workforce.

While it’s probably true that many car-centric commuters wouldn’t be happy if they were suddenly told they had to pay for their own parking, it’s still worth asking whether the chicken or the egg comes first when it comes to free workplace parking. Do businesses provide free parking because commuters drive, or do commuters drive because businesses provide free parking?

It’s a question without an easy answer, but what we’ve seen in our years of experience in the transportation demand management industry is that commuters are more likely to adopt smarter modes of transportation if they’re given a strong incentive to do so.

Free Parking Isn’t the Only Path to Happy Commuters

If you’d like to reduce employee reliance on single-occupancy vehicles, cut parking costs and encourage commuters to use smarter modes of transportation more often, all while keeping commuters happy, there’s a smart, simple way to go about it:

Give employees the option of trading in their free parking privileges for a different form of transportation incentive, like a free monthly transit pass, credit toward a new bike, or a monthly parking cash-out program designed to encourage carpooling.

This way, you empower commuters to make their own choices, all while protecting the goodwill you generate by offering free parking in the first place. Not only that, these programs can even be seen as added employee benefits for those who prefer transportation modes other than driving!

Check out our learning center for more information on alternatives to free parking that save businesses money while encouraging smarter commuting. You can also find out about incentives to promote ridesharing and tools to manage parking right here on our blog.

If you’d like to learn how our industry-leading commuter management platform can power your parking incentive programs, contact RideAmigos today.

Improve Organizational Resilience with Smarter Commuting

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What is organizational resilience?

Organizational resilience is a critical concept for businesses, especially mid-size to large companies with sizable workforces. It is defined as an organization’s ability to continue functioning at a high level in the face of sudden, unexpected disruptions and gradual changes. Strategic planning experts emphasize the importance of organizational resilience as a critical component of a sound business continuity plan.

While organizational resilience planning can cover dramatic, high-profile disruptive events like natural disasters, extreme weather, terrorist attacks, and military assaults, its everyday applications are far more mundane. Businesses seek to address common problems like severe traffic congestion, unexpected interruptions to public transit service, accidents, and road closures.

Such occurrences tend to have a shorter-term but still financially significant impact on a company’s operations. As such, businesses seek to improve their resilience to insulate themselves from the financial losses caused by disruptions. Sound organizational resilience plans feature four central components:

  • Anticipation. Strategic planners assess the various short-term, medium-term, and long-term possibilities when considering the different scenarios that could cause enough disruption to negatively impact business activities.
  • Preparation. Companies form and implement contingency plans that address each of the major potential problems identified in the previous step. They also make sure that all management-level staff knows about these contingency plans and can access them on short notice.
  • Response. This aspect of the strategy defines the decisive action the company takes to execute its contingency plans. Response elements focus on restoring the organization to acceptable levels of output and productivity as quickly as possible.
  • Adaptation. If the disruptive event forces sustained or permanent changes to organizational operation, adaptation plans anticipate the new future landscape while addressing shortcomings with the added benefits of experience and hindsight.

Smart commuting tools improve organizational resilience by preparing you for the unexpected.

One important way to improve organizational resilience is to arm commuters with tools that help them overcome disruptions like inclement weather, transit strikes and service interruptions, construction, and temporary road closures. Common scenarios include things like:

  • Problems with train tracks, signals, or other infrastructure that temporarily slows or disables light rail trains, subways, or buses
  • Heavy rain or snowfall that causes treacherous driving conditions
  • Lane or road closures on major thoroughfares during construction season

Here’s a look at a few specific commuter management strategies that support higher levels of organizational resilience:

  • Telecommuting. One of the best ways to overcome disruptions that prevent people from getting to work is to have them work from home instead! Telework commuter services keep employees productive no matter what the weather or local traffic conditions, all while delivering a more beneficial work-life balance that increases job satisfaction.
  • Encouraging carpooling. Creating a ridesharing culture in your company encourages people to be less dependent on solo driving. Companies with a high percentage of solo-drive commuters are more susceptible to the problems caused by sudden disruptions. Corporate carpool programs can help: they get people traveling in groups, helping them reach the work site in larger numbers during periods of disruption.
  • Vanpools. This effective solution is an excellent workaround for the so-called “last mile” dilemma. Operating a vanpool shuttle between your work site and a major local transit hub allows people to easily use public transportation as an alternative to driving. This can neutralize problems like road closures and severe congestion, giving commuters a point-to-point option that allows them to bypass road problems using subways or overground rail transit.

Giving commuters the ability to take such interruptions in stride and source alternative modes of transportation without missing a beat is critical, and it’s one of the key value propositions offered by the RideAmigos commuter management hub.

The RideAmigos platform has been adopted by numerous businesses and agencies around the world to help improve organizational resilience while reducing their carbon footprints. Get started today and empower your employees to respond to challenges with agility and efficiency.

Health Benefits of Bike Commuting

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Leaving your car at home is definitely good for your mind, but it’s even better for your body.

This past April, researchers published a new study in the British Medical Journal that’s attracted a lot of attention in the transportation demand management space. The study, which was carried out by scientists in the United Kingdom, compared the relative health benefits of four common modes of commuting: driving, public transportation, walking, and cycling. Their conclusion? Cycling is, by a significant margin, the healthiest option.

The study’s key finding is that when practiced on a daily basis, pedal power reduces an individual’s risk of dying, from any disease or cause, by an amazing 41 percent. Researchers expected that cycling would prove to be the healthiest mode of transportation, given that it is the highest-intensity commuting option included in the study. However, even these seasoned scientists were surprised to learn just how dramatically it can improve a person’s physical health.

This particular study followed over 263,000 participants between the ages of 40 and 69 over a five-year period. Its methodology included controls to correct for lifestyle factors, age disparities, socioeconomic imbalances, and other important variables. The study also included a mixed-mode option, in which active forms of commuting, such as cycling and walking, were combined with inactive transportation options, such as public transit and driving. The conclusive trend held up even in this regard, with study participants who included biking as part of a mixed-mode commuting strategy showing a 24 percent decrease in mortality risk.

So what makes biking so beneficial? Study participants who biked to work generally had longer distances to cover than those who walked, giving them a longer and more intensive regular workout.

If you’re looking to promote an alternative to solo driving, biking is a great place to start. In addition, studies have also shown that shared modes of transportation, such as carpooling and public transportation, are also associated with both mental and physical health benefits. There’s room for a complete range of options in any complete commuter management strategy.

Thinking of this from an employer’s perspective, it’s worth noting that encouraging people to commute by bike can also benefit an organization’s bottom line due to such health benefits. That means biking to work is a win-win for both commuters themselves and the companies they work for! Which is a great reason to promote cycling both during Bike to Work month and year-round.

5 Ways Bike Commuting Benefits Your Bottom Line

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Bicycle commuting creates a positive impact on your organization

May is National Bike Month! In honor of the occasion, it’s time to highlight five often-overlooked ways that bicycle commuting delivers bottom-line benefits to businesses and organizations.

More bike commuters means less need for parking

Renting or building additional parking spaces to accommodate vehicles can be very costly. Many bicycles can fit in the space a car would normally occupy, and providing secure bicycle lock-ups and racks can be achieved for a small fraction of the cost of adding parking.

Cycling reduces stress

Research has shown that a single-occupancy vehicle is the most stressful way to get to and from work. Battling other drivers for space on congested highways and thoroughfares is never a great way to start the day.

Cycling, by comparison, is far less stressful. Studies indicate that those who choose smarter forms of transportation, including bicycles, improve their productivity in addition to reducing stress.

Bike commuters take fewer sick days

The British Medical Journal recently published a study showing that cycling is one of the healthiest ways to commute. It provides a great cardiovascular workout that helps support immune system function. Those who cycle to work are less likely to miss days due to illness, in large part because they tend to have better overall health than those who choose sedentary modes of transportation.

Cycling is a great team-building activity

A growing number of businesses are discovering the benefits of bikepools, in which more experienced riders team up with lesser experienced bike commuters to show them the ropes of urban cycling. Bikepools offer an organic, engaging way to promote camaraderie, collaboration, and friendship, all of which help create a more unified work environment.

It boosts organizational credibility

Eco-friendly values are proving to deliver major branding and image-boosting benefits for businesses. By promoting and encouraging bike-based commuting, businesses can build a better public image, attract higher-quality employees and do a better job of retaining talent.

Moreover, you’ll connect with a broader base of potential customers, as market research is showing that people are increasingly choosing products and services delivered by businesses that share their values.

To learn more about how your organization can benefit from a higher rate of bike commuting, and get proven tools for promoting cycling as an alternative to driving, let us know you’re ready to get started with RideAmigos!

Incentives for Bike Commuting

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Organizations that offer bike commuting incentives have a better track record of getting people to make the switch

A lot of people are theoretically open to making the switch to bicycle commuting, yet hesitate to actually make the jump or don’t stick with it for the long term. It’s a problem that many businesses and organizations have faced when trying to promote active, healthier and more ecologically responsible commuting alternatives.

One constant that’s emerged from creative thinking and a great deal of trial and error is that people are more likely to make the switch if you give them a compelling reason to do it. This strategy of providing bike commuting incentives can take many forms:

Competitive challenges

Some people just need to have their competitive spirit awakened, and creating a friendly but competitive bike challenge program is often enough to get commuters excited. Individuals and teams can vie to log the greatest number of bicycle commutes or the greatest total distance covered over a set period of time, with winners becoming eligible for prizes (and bragging rights!).

Points programs

Reward would-be drivers every time they commute by bike instead by awarding points for each vehicle commute saved. After reaching a certain threshold, the points can then be redeemed for prizes or other perks that might motivate your team members.

Raffles

This approach is similar to points programs, but instead of awarding points, they give commuters an entry in a prize draw for each bicycle commute they log. The bigger the prize, the more enthusiastic people will be.

Earn-a-bike initiatives

Numerous organizations have used this approach to great success. Earn-a-bike programs allow commuters to effectively trade their parking privileges for a bike. Check the Sonos earn-a-bike program for a great example of a strategy that worked very well.

If you need ideas for raffle, points program and competitive challenge prizes, here are some popular options:

  • Bikes or bike accessories (locks, helmets, reflective jerseys, etc.)
  • Vouchers or gift cards redeemable at local bike shops
  • Physical or digital-download gift cards to local malls, restaurants, or retailers
  • Event tickets (sports, movies, etc.)
  • Extra paid time off
  • Cash bonuses
  • Transit passes
  • Rideshare credits to services like Uber and Lyft

The RideAmigos team has great insights to share if you’re looking to create a bike commuting incentives program, and the RideAmigos platform is the ideal tool for shifting commuter behavior. Get started with RideAmigos today to learn more.

Shift your commuter programs into high gear for bike month

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Make an impact with your National Bike Month commuting program.

Every year since 1956, May has been designated as National Bike Month. Sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists, National Bike Month offers businesses and communities a wealth of ways to encourage active, sustainable commuting alternatives.

National Bike Month is a great opportunity to improve health and fitness, reduce traffic congestion and pollution, and discover new ways of looking at your community. Bike-to-work programs enable businesses and organizations to get more people involved, and provide a perfect opportunity to encourage commuters to make a long-term transition to pedal power.

Building a successful bike-to-work program means getting as many people involved as possible. Here are a few winning tips to help you drum up robust participation rates for your smart commute challenges and events:

Start with a survey

When designing your bike to work challenge, the best place to start is with a survey. This will help you generate information-based insights into important factors like the experience level of riders, how far people will be commuting, and what routes they will be following.

From there, you can divide the respondents into groups that reflect their enthusiasm and experience level. This allows you to focus segmented promotional efforts on specific groups of people. Use strategic insights to help turn people with middling levels of interest into enthusiastic participants who can’t wait to get started. After all, promotional efforts are best directed at those who are on the fence instead of those who are already jumping at the bit to take part.

Create incentives

Gamification incentives, like prizes and rewards programs, give participants an extra bit of motivation to get involved in your bike to work challenge. Playing for points or pride can work in the short term, but commuter challenges work best when they also encourage people to make better use of smart commuting alternatives over the long run.

To that end, remember that offering rewards and prizes for continuing to commute by bike is a surefire way to get people to commit to behavior change over the long haul. You can also use short-term challenges as test runs for longer-term or permanent programs to see what works, what connects with participants, and where you need to improve your strategy.

Promote your program strategically

When you get around to launching your promotional campaign, build in time to analyze the results. Instead of making an all-in push from the get-go, leave wiggle room that allows you to make adjustments. This will help you bring more people into the fold, ultimately supporting a more successful program.

You can also learn more from our collaboration with Google on creating a strong and successful bike-to-work initiative.

Pair inexperienced riders with “bike buddies”

Bikepooling and “bike buddy” programs are effective options for reaching people who would like to bike to work but don’t feel comfortable riding alone. These programs match new riders with experienced bike commuters who can show new biking enthusiasts the ropes and help them navigate city traffic safely and confidently.

An added benefit of the “bike buddy” approach is that it helps improve workplace collegiality and foster increased cooperation among your company’s commuter base. People can form friendships and expand their professional networks through the connections they make by taking part in smart commute challenges and events.

Expanding beyond the challenge: Emerging ideas for driving long-term mode shift

Encouraging long-term behavior change is challenging, but one strategy that’s catching on is the idea of trading parking permits for bicycles. Organizations and institutions in both the public and private sectors have already leveraged this strategy to great success, and it provides a powerful incentive that reduces parking demand, keeps parking costs in check, and helps build a healthier, happier community.

Consider it as a potential end goal of your bike to work challenge!

Power your commuter challenges and incentive programs with RideAmigos

The RideAmigos software platform has everything you’ll need to design, promote, manage, and administer bike to month challenges and other commuter programs. Our industry-leading solution supports survey distribution, data analysis tools, incentive tracking, statistical management, and a complete range of other features for administrators and commuters alike.

To learn more, get started with RideAmgios today!

Top Incentives to Increase Ridesharing (Infographic)

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Wondering how to increase ridesharing among employees?

Create incentive programs that turn negatives into positives:

How to Use Smart Incentives to Increase Ridesharing Infographic

One of the best ways to increase ridesharing is by creating incentives that neutralize the commonly cited reasons why people avoid carpooling in the first place.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2013 American Community Survey, only 9.4% of commuters use carpools to get to work. While one can hope that figure has come up a bit in the years since comprehensive federal data was last published, there’s little doubt that ridesharing still has vast untapped potential.

A poll performed by ABC News showed that while 20% of commuters were interested in sharing rides, 51% of commuters say they think carpooling would be “inconvenient,” 18% of respondents said they don’t take part in rideshare programs because they “don’t know anyone to carpool with,” and 11% cited issues related to scheduling and needing to rely on others.

Incentive programs that turn these negatives into positives have a great chance of success. Here are some tips for creating rideshare programs built on the very principles that supposedly prevent people from taking part in them:

Provide in-company or neighborhood-based rideshare matching. These are both great ways to address privacy-related concerns. Provide commuters with tools to make quick, safe connections with coworkers or neighbors so they don’t have to share rides with complete strangers.

Create flexible scheduling options. People may not need a ride when they have it, and they may not have a ride when they need it. The solution? Allow carpooling commuters to work on flex-time schedules, or adopt rideshare matching software that lets users set their availability for specific days and times according to their needs.

Offer a guaranteed ride home. Many solo drivers also want the freedom and flexibility to be able to respond to emergencies and unexpected situations, and don’t want to be without a way to get home if something happens. Guaranteed ride home programs reimburse carpoolers if they need to use a taxi or on-demand ride-hailing service on short notice.

The RideAmigos commuter management platform is filled with powerful features that are ideal for implementing these and many other smart incentive programs for increasing ridesharing.

Get started with RideAmigos today!