How Businesses can Support Active Transportation
We're lucky in Metro Vancouver to live in a climate so well suited to being outdoors. So why are we always in a car? Most of us have the option of using active transportation for at least part of our commute to and from work, but it's still not the popular choice.
Active Transportation and Your Business
Any method of human-powered transportation is considered active transportation. It's a perfect way to integrate some exercise into your routine and create the type of lifestyle that makes us the envy of the rest of the country. Plus, you'll be helping to improve the local air quality.
Consider that the average car makes 2000 trips of 3 km or less a year. Over 1/3 of work trips in the GVRD are less than 5 km. And for trips under 10 km, cycling is often faster than driving, especially when you factor in traffic and finding parking. Many trips of 3 - 10 km could easily be replaced by active transportation
If you have a business and are trying to encourage active transportation, there are a number of things of you can do to support your employees.
You can customize the policy to suit your specific business and employee needs
Promoting Active Transportation at Work
- Provide Lockers/Changing Room Facilities: It rains here. A lot. You're not convincing anyone if your only advice for cycling or running to work is to "dress appropriately." Yes, that's a factor, but even more so is having a clean, roomy changing facility and storage at the destination. Nobody is going to put up with an entire day of squishy shoes and the smell of wet wool for the sake of active transportation.
- Offer Secure Bike Storage Rooms: You wouldn't leave your car unlocked in an unsecured facility, so don't think of bicycles as an afterthought. Show employees you care and value their investments.
- Promote the Health Benefits: Encourage employees to start (and end) their day with a happy dose of endorphins. They'll be exposed to less pollution cycling or running on a busy road than if they were inside a car. Plus, just 30 minutes of walking can reduce the risk of developing coronary heart disease, adult diabetes and obesity by 50% and reduce the risk of developing hypertension by 30%.
- Make it Part of Your Work Culture: Support active transportation from the inside out. Start a committee or introduce lunch-hour seminars on safety issues, new routes to the office or even offer to match up "biking buddies" so novice cyclists can benefit from more experienced riders. And when new employees start, provide orientation that details how your company supports active transportation.
If your company has specific active transportation stories or practices to share, submit a comment below to help other businesses build their own TravelSmart plans and policies.