National Bike Month

May is National Bike Month, meaning your responsibility as a conscientious bike rider is to notify your friends and coworkers and kindly encourage them to give their auto's cylinders a break and start using the cylinders they are more accustomed to propping up on an ottoman. It's difficult to approach people without sounding like you're proselytizing a lifestyle, but as a general rule, if you sound more smug than the last sentence, you might need to change your approach.

Read on for a little bit about National Bike Month, how to celebrate it, and how not to.

How to engage your community, workplace, and neighborhood It is interesting to know that more than half of the U. S. population lives within five miles of where they work, but nearly all of them drive. This fact alone may make it easy to get folks at the office involved. Add to that the fact that nearly one in five people who participate in organized "bike to work" days eventually become regular bike commuters. They realize the obvious, it's fun, green and healthy. But how to get them to participate? Assuming you don't have a lot of resources to spend on coordinating a bike to work or school effort, there are still plenty of ways to encourage people to participate. First and foremost, you'll need to route maps from various places in your city within several miles of the destination. That way, people won't feel intimidated about riding on busy streets or navigating pedestrians. Novice bikers will usually avoid such situations.

Next, coordinate a start time and have the bicyclists race the bus riders and drivers. Either to or from work, if this takes place during rush hour, the bicyclists nearly always win. Local news crews love to get in on these kinds of things, which creates great publicity for next year's National Bike Month.

Getting kids excited about riding bikes to school is easy, but the goal should be to teach them safe bike riding and the rules of the road. Getting a parent to "bike pool" is a great way to start the kids on a lifetime of cycling.

Grander schemes for Bike Month
Organizing within your school and office is well and good, but if you want to go large, read on.

Approach retailers and restaurants about offering a modest discount for those who bike to their establishment. This is a tough sell, but remember that lately a green profile makes for a superb public image for any business. If they don't sign on, suggest they at least provide appropriate bike parking and security.

Try to coordinate a number of large offices to compete for the highest percentage of bike riding workforce. This is fun for everyone involved, usually inspires quite a few to be regular bike commuters, and is great publicity. Of course, consequences matter, so including a friendly wager is always a great idea. It may simply be footing the bill for a round of coffee at the winning office, or the losers could host a lunch.

Another popular event to coordinate is a bike ride with the mayor or another high profile public official. Politicians will have a hard time turning down the chance for such great publicity, and the noble cause will more than make up for the slightly dirty feeling you'll get from having briefly dealt in politics. If you can't get anybody on board, petition the mayor to officially proclaim May as National Bike Month in your city.