Bike Week ideas?

[gordon taylor]

I've decided to try and organise a Bike to Work day, on the 20th June,  as part of Bike Week. I suspect that this is going to be a complete waste of time... however, if anyone has any ideas how to entice people out of their cars, I'd like to hear them.

Location: Stafford (a small, congested, flat county town)
Workplace: A high school with various attached community organisations - 80 staff in total.
Current bike commuters: Me and one fair-weather technician.
Facilities: Covered bike parking. Cloakrooms. No showers.
Reward: Free breakfast.

Thank you for any help.


PS: I'm not a good role model for the potential casual cyclist - being somewhat obsessed and evangelical. 

[ScumOfTheRoad]

Gordy, I can't help you directly with this one. I guess you just have to publicise it well.

I organised Bike Week events for Greenwich Cyclists one year. Its hard work, but worth it. One good idea I came up with was the "Tour de Greenwich" - a fun day out on the bikes, where I thought up several "stages" which were fun races or events at various points round the borough. We ended up with a quiz in a cafe.
I would recommend something like that for a general Bike Week event - but just don't let people get carried away with the competitive spirit! You want to stage a slow race, not some downhill sprints!

For the Bike to Work event, how about organising some races round the car park? Might encourage people to dig those bikes out of the shed. Or get a local cycle shop to send along a mechanic for a Dr Bike session. Though that presupposes that the bikes are in a fit state to cycle them to work in the first place. Thinking again, how about a pre-Bike Week Dr Bike session - bring in your bike from the shed and it will have tyres pumped up, gears adjusted etc. in preparation for the big Bike to Work?

Or another thought - people these days go on about carbon footprints. Work out the carbon footprint for a typical journey to/from work, and make people feel good about reducing their carbon footprint for that day. (Yes I KNOW it will be minimal, but you have to make people feel good about themselves).

[David Martin]

Fun games to play are the box game, slow bike race etc. Crbon footprints are a good idea too.

[Basil]

Put a map up in the staff room (or wherever).  Use map pins and highlighter to show routes of all those that cycle in.  -  People like to be on noticeboards.

Let it be known that there will be a Dr Bike at lunchtime.  This usually encourages a few who think that they'll get some sort of free service or something.  What actually happens is that Dr. Bike (you) has a consultation with each bike, identifies problems, diagnoses and then suggests action needed to improve the health of the bike.   Dr. Bike will also suggest which specialist the owner should visit with the list of things that need working on.