Why Your Business Should Be Bicycle Friendly

No, this isn’t an anti-car rap. (Nothing of the sort—we think cars, like bikes, are great tools for transportation.) It’s a pro-bicycle, bike to work proclamation with support for why it makes business sense to become bike friendly. Here’s why:

It’s fun.

I know that might rub some of the business puritans among you as wrong, but it’s true. First and foremost, riding your bike to work is fun. It’s a great transition between home and work, and as often as not, people who ride to work enter the office with a smile on their face. That smile translates into happy employees. Being a bicycle-friendly business makes a huge statement about being a fun, vibrant and healthy workplace. Potential employees get that big time. So do customers.

It’s healthy.

We just mentioned healthy, didn’t we? Well, I probably don’t have to sell you on why employee health is important to your business, but hey, we’re riding here, so I might as well pick up the pace.

Riding your bicycle to work strongly correlates with employee wellness. This translates into many things for the employee and employer: fewer sick days, a higher level of alertness and energy on the job, and likely it reduces health insurance claims as well. And, yes—that smile on the face we discussed earlier, for sure it’s a clear contributor to improved morale in any workplace.

It’s environmentally friendly.

Green business! No fossil fuels consumed in its operation and a minor carbon footprint. That’s good, especially if you are an environmental business or you are marketing sustainability to your diverse audiences: customers, employees, the community, investors and suppliers. Whether you’re a B Corporation (as we are) or a global manufacturer weaving sustainability into its story, this is vitally important for authenticity.

Your customers dig it.

If you’re a retailer or a restaurant (or even an office), customers who bicycle will appreciate your bike-friendly business. (And bicyclists are a passionate and loyal crew who will favor you with their patronage over other alternatives.) Ding, ding, can you hear your cash register ring?

It saves money.

Let’s hear that “ding, ding” once more. If, like Oliver Russell, you provide paid parking for your employees, every bicycle rider saves you a monthly cost. In our case, we save $60. We are actually looking at sharing some of the savings with our bike-riding employees as an incentive to encourage more of it. (In addition, there is also a Bicycle Commuter Tax Benefit that enables businesses to reimburse employees up to $20 a month as a qualified transportation benefit for riding their bike to work.)

While it’s not a direct savings, when someone bicycles to your establishment it saves a parking spot for another car-driving customer who needs it. That adds customer convenience to the equation.

And while our business isn’t rewarded for it today, I believe that one day our bicycle-friendly status will reward us in the way of reduced health insurance premiums.

It saves time.

Boise State University is, by Google Maps, just one measly mile from our office. We worked with a client on campus there, and here’s what I discovered: I could leave the office five minutes after a car-driving colleague departed and arrive for our meeting 5-10 minutes before they did. They dealt with traffic, stoplights, and the parking runaround on campus. On my ride, I paralleled the Boise River, felt the wind against my face, and was transported—if only for a few minutes—back to childhood. Now which would you pick? Time gained and a positive experience or time suck and traffic?

It connects employees with community.

A car takes you out of the environment. A bike slows you down and puts you in touch with passers-by. You might connect with a fellow cyclist at a stoplight, or you might see a friend and stop to say hi. When was the last time you stopped your car to do either of those?

Certified by the American League of Bicyclists

So now that you know the benefits, how do you go about becoming a bicycle-friendly business? The best way to do this is to become certified by American League of Bicyclists. The League has done a good job of setting standards that provide an authentic gauge for what constitutes a bicycle friendly business.

"Some businesses struggle to get started on the application, but once they do, they begin to discover the easy path it creates for becoming more bicycle friendly,” said Jimmy Hallyburton of Boise Bicycle Project, which helps businesses through the application process and is one of only 13 platinum level bicycle friendly organizations in the United States. “Every business I've ever helped apply has been surprised how much of a motivating factor it was for their employees once they received the reward, and they comment on how the employees who chose to ride are happier, healthier, and more productive than they have ever been."

You can learn more about the certification and application process on the business section of the American League of Bicyclists website. And if you want to read about a seriously fantastic Boise Bicycle Project social media fundraising promotion, take just a couple of minutes and check out our blog post.

Our city, Boise, is actually tied with Pittsburgh, PA, for the most bicycle-friendly businesses in the United States; in the soon-to-be released rankings, both cities have 30. Our goal here in Boise is to reach 100 bike-friendly businesses as quickly as possible. If you’d like to check on the certified businesses in your area, you can do it on the American League of Bicyclists ranking page.

Here’s How We Roll at Oliver Russell

Here at Oliver Russell, we have a shower, lockers, and secure storage for bicycles inside our building, in addition, we’ve installed bicycle racks outside our office that accommodate parking for upwards of 20 bicycles. Some people commute to work; some leave a bike here at work and go for a ride over the noon hour. As far as we’re concerned, it’s all good.

We are certified bicycle friendly at the bronze level, so we’ve got room for lots of improvement and look forward to improving. Ride on!

On a related note: We build brands for purpose-driven companies and we’re a certified B Corp, so working with passion and purpose is baked into our culture. We occasionally get to merge our passion for bicycles with our profession. We’ve produced a digital and social marketing project and successfully increased event registration for New Belgium Brewing (a fellow B Corporation and, like Boise Bicycle Project, one of only 13 platinum level bicycle friendly business in the country) for its Tour de Fat Event. We have also launched and branded a grassroots cycling group, the Boise Bicycle Brigade. You can check out in the additional work section of our portfolio here. Both were a lot of fun. And by now, you ought to know how I feel about fun and its place in a business.