Bicycle Friendly America Fall 2017 - 20

BICYCLE FRIENDLY BUSINESS

cates and area planning staff have teamed
up to bring more cycling infrastructure
each year, including green bike lanes
for the city's grand entrance on Capitol
Mall. Scores of residents commute daily
on the nearby American River Parkway
Trail - 20+ miles of continuous Class
I Bikeway connecting the suburbs with
the urban core. The city recently earned
Silver status in the League's Bicycle
Friendly Community award and is working towards gold. The capital city is also
home to dozens of government agencies, and many of those workers must
travel between buildings and campuses
to attend meetings, get lunch, go to the
dentist and just simply get out of the office. So the idea of bikes for employees
made sense to me and my colleagues,
and in 2007 we asked to draft and pitch
a proposal to share with management.
But there was just one problem: Where
would the money come for the bikes,
racks and gear? Unfortunately, state general fund dollars were not available at the
time and searching for grants to fund the

"I credit the League's LCI program
for much of our success."
bicycles was challenging as many of the
funders that we contacted were not set
up to give money to state government
agencies. So, the good idea got shelved.
So what got it going in the end? Two
key events started the ball rolling. In fall
2013, a large health maintenance organization began a partnership with the
state's health department to run a threeyear worksite wellness pilot program on
the very same campus. I never lost sight
of this dream to bring bikes to my colleagues; those employees that hadn't
imagined biking in the middle of the
day, or didn't own a bike or hadn't ridden in decades. So when a chance hallway meeting with the wellness program's
leader came my way, I suggested the
bike-sharing idea and volunteered to do
the legwork and revise the old proposal.
I definitely used the "foot in the door"
tactic and suggested that a very small
amount of money would be needed to

start a pilot program. In retrospect, we
could have used a few more dollars but
we had enough for the basics and made it
work. Second, a colleague at the department (Becky Garrow) won a chance to
have lunch with the department Director
through a May is Bike Month contest.
She was the best possible person to pitch
the BikeShare concept to the Director.
She is knowledgeable, persuasive and a
dedicated bike commuter. Plus, it ended
up that he was a cyclist himself so that
helped sway his decision to support the
concept. With a colleague now helping,
a promised bit of seed money from the
HMO, and the support of the department's Director - I had some hope.
That winter, Becky and I met weekly to plan the necessary components
(bikes, locks, helmets, panniers, racks,
etc.), toured another state agency that
had its own fledgling bike fleet, and connected with everyone we could think
of in the Department who would have
a say in the project. I was meeting with
people way above my pay grade and out

7x4.4375
4c

Achieving great things
for our community
When one person comes along with the courage
and vision to turn dreams into reality, the future
looks bigger and brighter for everyone.
We proudly celebrate the success of all
participants in the National Bike Challenge.
wellsfargo.com/stories

20 BICYCLE FRIENDLY AMERICA

http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist1/d1projects/manila-atp/bikeways_explained.pdf http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist1/d1projects/manila-atp/bikeways_explained.pdf http://www.bikeleague.org/community http://www.bikeleague.org/community http://wellsfargo.com/stories http://www.wellsfargo.com/stories

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Bicycle Friendly America Fall 2017