Bikes Mean Business: Encouraging Healthy

Commuting

August 18, 2011Steve Hoyt-McBeth

Transportation Options Portland Bureau of Transportation

Bikes Mean Business: Encouraging Healthy

Commuting

August 18, 2011Steve Hoyt-McBeth

Transportation Options Portland Bureau of Transportation

Employer Policies Influence Employee

Transportation Choices

and Increase The Bottom Line

Bottom Line(s)…

•Financial costs of doing business

•Environmental performance

•Business public image

Cost of replacing employees

Cost of replacing employees

•30% - 150% of annual salary

Retention of employeesRetention of employees

•“Our commute program is the most popular element of our benefit package,” Tom Sloan, co-founder, Sockeye Creative

Does your commute affect your productivity?

Employee Health and the Bottom Line

•Surgeon General recommends 30 minutes a day of exercise

•Starting a walking regime cuts your sick days in half –Dr. David Nieman

•Survey of workers in every state in 47 of the 50 larger cities

•Higher rates of walking and biking corresponded to

•Higher percentage of adults exercising 30 minutes a day•Lower percentages of adult obesity

Drive less. Live moreDrive less. Live more

• “After age adjustment, time riding in a car and combined time spent in these two sedentary behaviors (watching TV) were positively associated with CVD (cardiovascular disease) death.”

Warren TY et al, Medicine in Sports and Exercise, May 2010

Is biking more dangerous?

Is biking more dangerous?

•Analyzed risk + benefit from Barcelona bike share

•Factoring in risks of inhaling exhaust and car

crash, 12 to 1 health benefit of biking compared to driving

Stress, Health and the Bottom Line

Stress, Health and the Bottom Line

• The number of American workers who consider stress to be a major problem in their lives has more than doubled during the past ten years. --The National Institute for Occupational Health and

Safety via Mission Control educational corporation

• “Overall, there was a significant relationship between daily stress and … health problems such as flu, sore throat, headaches, and backaches.” ---The Impact of Daily Stress on Health and Mood:

Psychological and Social Resources as Mediators, Anita DeLongis, Susan Folkman, Richard S. Lazarus, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1988. Vol. 54. No. 3.486-495

Stress and Commuting ModesStress and Commuting Modes

“Type of Commute, Behavioral Aftereffects, and Cardiovascular Activity: A Field Experiment,” Steven M. White and James Rotton. Environment and Behavior, Vol. 30, No. 6, 763-780 (1998)

Stress and Commuting ModesStress and Commuting Modes

Blood Pressure & Commute Modes

Exercise for Stress ReductionExercise for Stress Reduction

•Endorphin release

•Confidence builder

•Mood stabilizer-Mayo Clinic

Photo Jonathan Maus, bikeportland.org

Case StudyCase Study

• Regence Bike Commuters

Lisa Wylie & Timothy Morita-Mcvey

Promoting Biking at Work

Promoting Biking at Work

Register your employer for the Bike Commute Challenge

Register your employer for the Bike Commute Challenge

Become known as the Bike Gal/Guy

Become known as the Bike Gal/Guy

Find accomplicesFind accomplices

•Green Team

•Wellness/HR

•Regular Jane/Joe cyclists

• Bike Commute Challenge and Free Walk/Bike Map Posters

• Organize Bike Commute Challenge workshop with BTA

• Make bike maps available or post

• Bike Commute Challenge and Free Walk/Bike Map Posters

• Organize Bike Commute Challenge workshop with BTA

• Make bike maps available or post

Get the word outGet the word out

Organize Bike BuddiesOrganize Bike Buddies

•Encourage them to go to commuter workshop

•Ride commute route with them (SLOWLY)

•Informal works well

Provide a fleet bike for employees

Provide a fleet bike for employees

Thank You!Thank You!

Photo: Jonathan Maus, bikeportland.org