Building a Better Bike Month

The League’s Club Leadership Webinar topic for April was Making the Most of Bike Month.

Rob Gusky, the Bike Ambassador for Kimberly-Clark Corporation, led off the presentation with an introduction to the National Bike Challenge. The Challenge, which kicks off May 1, is a national outreach campaign that helps motivate people to bike more often and track their progress, alongside the progress of other riders across the country. Kimberly-Clark, the League, Bikes Belong, and Endomondo are the national sponsors of the 2012 Challenge.

Amanda White, Associate Director of the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin then spoke about promoting the Challenge last year, when 4,500 riders logged 1.2 million miles in the Wisconsin Bike Challenge. Key outcomes for the Bike Fed were being able to highlight the number of miles logged as transportation, and the way the Challenge helped them reach outside their base. White’s top tip for a successful Bike to Work Week was to engage community businesses and organizations to sponsor commuter pit stops, with the sponsor staffing the station and providing the food and drink for riders.

Stephanie Frans talked about how Cascade Bicycle Club has built Bike Month into a month-long program of inter-related activities in Seattle. In particular, she talked about using diverse approaches to reach diverse audiences, including a kick-off breakfast, bike to school day, targeted rides for different types of riders, free classes and bike repair stations for commuters. Thirty seven percent of the riders in Cascade’s commuter challenge are women, much higher than the percentage of women in the general riding population. Frans felt that the opportunity to connect with other riders help motivate women to participate.

Julie Harris of Activate Omaha capped off the evening talking about Omaha’s commute challenge and Bike Month efforts. Harris also touted the value of the compiled data from their commute challenge, and the importance of a diverse approach to promotion.

Click to watch the whole presentation.