We don’t just help others with bike commuting, we practice it ourselves!

Over the course of Bike Month 2017, many members of the RideAmigos team took to two wheels and biked their way to their respective offices across the country. Some walked, others took transit, and as always we all tried to make solo driving our last choice, not our first. 100% of our Roanoke, VA office and 80% of our Bloomington, IN office bike commuted during May, and one of our executives made the decision to sell his car and invest in an e-bike!

 

As we wrap-up our Bike Month celebrations, we thought we’d highlight a few of our Amigos and their commuting efforts this month:

Corey Tucker – Partner Success Manager
Roanoke, VA

For the first time in a long time I live more than five miles from work, and instead of biking every day, I drive into the office a couple of days a week.  For bike to work month I wanted to make an effort to ride in, but had to figure out the best way to fit a 50 mile, one-way journey into my day.  Without enough light in the day to bike both ways, my fellow amigo, Matt McKimmy…who lives very close to the office, was generous enough to allow me to leave my car overnight so I could commute home one day, and back to the office the next.  One way, each day, on the bike.  Even with the best of intentions I was unable to find two consecutive days where I could sacrifice three hours to the bicycle until the last week of the month…and then it started raining.  Unwilling to give up on the dream I hopped on my bike one afternoon for a rainy 50 mile slog home…and again the next morning for a rainy 50 mile slog back to the office.  Luckily there was tasty hot chocolate waiting for me at the end.

Mark Stosberg – Senior Systems Engineer
Bloomington, IN

My Xtracycle cargo bike is convenient for hauling extra food and clothing supplies on Mondays and Tuesdays to support my run commutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays where I try to have a lighter load. On Wednesdays I telecommute and use the time saved commuting to run a mile to the elementary school with my kids instead of putting them on the bus. They love it and asked to keep a weekly run over the summer break.

By trading two bike commuting days per week for run commutes, I was able to find time to train for my first marathon two years ago. Now I’ve lost 30 pounds and placed first in my age group in a trail marathon this month. Although my age has only gone up, I’m in perhaps the best shape I’ve been in my life and most of my training miles come from active transportation.

Jeff Jackson – Marketing Manager
Roanoke, VA

I am not a cyclist. I rode a bike when I was a kid and very limited as an adult. For the month of May I was challenged to commute to work on a bike and I will admit I was not looking forward to the experience. The thought of adding time to my commute every day, being sweaty, and the risks of getting hit by a car or just not being aware and somehow hurting myself made me want to avoid this challenge altogether.

Now that the month is over, reflecting on my experience and I must say that my expectations were completely wrong. Since May first I have ridden on greenways, open roads all over the city, gone mountain biking on several trails and I have loved almost every ride. In the past month I have tried five different types of bikes, developed new friendships, seen more of the city, lost weight, improved my cardio, and rekindled a childhood-like joy that I had forgotten about.

I highly recommend everyone to try this for one month! The concerns that held me back were simply fears that weren’t true. The time I added to my commute was minimal, during the hottest days I never felt sweaty and I found that people were very respectful while I was on the road.

Matt McKimmy – Systems and Operations Manager
Roanoke, VA

In addition to biking and walking my 3-block commute for the entire month, I’ve also been actively involved in our local RideSolutions Ride Smart Challenge. While I’ve long been a bike commuter, this was my first time participating in a local challenge like this and contributing to the Sweaty Pedalers team victory was tremendous fun! In order to help encourage others to participate in bike month festivities my wife and I loaned a couple of our extra bikes to friends, which meant that most of the 70+ transportation miles I logged this month were on my super-capable (but also heavy) Yuba Mundo long-tail cargo bike.

Since I moved into the city in April, this bike month challenge was a great way to expedite learning the best bike routes around town, making new friends, and figuring out ways that I might be able to help others to see bikes as a great form of transportation. I have no doubt that I’ll bike more throughout the summer because of all the excitement and encouragement that were part of bike month.

 

We hope all our partners and friends had great success with their Bike Month initiatives. If you’re looking for the perfect platform for running future bike challenges, bike-to-work incentive programs, and events, look no further than RideAmigos. We make it easy for people to shift away from solo driving and toward smarter, healthier commute options like biking, walking, carpooling, and more.

Find out how we can help make your Bike Month 2018 programs even more successful than this year’s – get started with RideAmigos today!