Accounting assistant Sandra Rosang happily admits to an "addiction" -- one that has strong backing from her employer. She bikes 10 kilometres to work, rain or shine.
An employee with Vancouver City Savings Credit Union for the past 24 years, Ms. Rosang first cycled to work 2½ years ago on a "clean air" day.
"Then I made a commitment [to bike]and it's become almost like an addiction," says the 49-year-old grandmother. "I get fitness into my day and I am not driving."
Her switch to cycling was made easier because VanCity offers its employees a number of amenities.
At VanCity's head office, where Ms. Rosang works, there are four showers, 15 lockers, change rooms and a secure storage area for 35 bikes. She keeps extra suits in her locker and has access to a dry cleaner in the building. Seven of VanCity's newest branch offices also have showers.
Promoting transit-friendly options for its 1,500 employees is a corporate goal of VanCity, the largest credit union in the country.
"Single occupancy vehicles are the No. 1 emitter of CO 2 emissions [a major contributor to air pollution]" says Loralee Delbrouck, manager of corporate social responsibility for VanCity. "There are great leadership opportunities for business and it does not have to cost a lot of money."
Seven years ago, the credit union built its new head office over a Skytrain transit station at Main Street and Terminal Avenue on the eastern edge of downtown Vancouver. VanCity participates in an incentive program offered by Translink, the Vancouver regional transportation authority, that offers a 15-per-cent discount to employees who sign up for an annual transit pass. In total, 107 companies and 6,600 employees in the Vancouver region are signed up for the discount pass.
In promoting alternative transportation, the credit union offers flexible work arrangements. About 12 per cent of the staff work longer hours over fewer days get every Friday or second Friday off.
As well, VanCity offers employees an emergency ride home program so that those without a car can get a free taxi home to care for a sick child or parent.
Ms. Delbrouck estimates that about 44 per cent of VanCity employees take alternative transportation -- biking, walking, transit and car pools -- up from 40 per cent in 1994. The credit union now plans to set a goal to raise the proportion of non-car commuters.
In keeping with its philosophy, VanCity last year awarded $1-million to a local pro-transit lobby group, Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (BEST), for completion of the Central Valley Greenway, a bicycle path to connect Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster.
Valder Belgrave, manager of transportation demand management for Translink, says VanCity is "one of the shining stars" among Vancouver-area employers who make commuting a concern for the organization. He also praised BC Housing, Vancouver General Hospital and the University of British Columbia.
"The biggest challenge is to get employers to accept and acknowledge they have a role and responsibility for their employees and how they get to work," Mr. Belgrave says. "They don't traditionally consider it."
Translink, unique in Canada for its regional responsibility for roads and transit, serves the Greater Vancouver Regional District, which has 2.1 million people. With one million more people expected over the next few decades, Translink is stepping up efforts to lure people from their cars. For example, it plans to triple its capital funding for bicycle facilities to $3-million in 2004, up from $1-million at present. While cyclists cannot yet take their bikes on Skytrain, the elevated train system that links the city of Vancouver and area suburbs, there are bike lockers at most stations.
About 55 per cent of Translink's bus fleet have bike racks (on the front of the bus), but the agency plans to equip all diesel buses this year, except in North Vancouver. The city's new trolley buses, expected for the 2004-7 period, will also have bike racks.
Translink has contracted with BEST to advise companies on how to reduce car trips to work. BEST conducts several seminars and provides on-site training to identify employee needs and seek alternatives to the car.
Mr. Belgrave said that Translink may soon add a new program to collect and analyze data on employee commuting patterns, so there is less onus on the employer to do the necessary research.
Like VanCity, some companies have made transportation issues part of their corporate culture.
In 1999, with its downtown office lease expiring, software company Crystal Decisions Inc. asked its employees where they wanted to relocate -- elsewhere in the city core or out in the suburbs.
The majority opted to stay downtown, and the company signed a new lease for an office on Cambie Street. In addition, it offers discount transit passes, bike storage, showers and drying racks for cyclists on those wet Vancouver days. There is no free parking.
"This isn't something the management thought up," says Bill Rinsma, director of worldwide facilities. "This [interest in transit options]is a grassroots sense of who we are."
Mr. Rinsma is among a number of transit advocates who would like the federal government to modify the tax code so that transit riders could deduct the cost of passes -- and put them on a level playing field with those who can park for free at work.
Translink has a modest goal for bikes to account for 3 per cent of all commuter trips by 2021.
But the city of Vancouver, which recently adopted a downtown transportation plan that includes a larger network of bike routes, has witnessed a surprising growth in travel by bike. In 1997, the city had forecast that bike and pedestrian traffic would account for 18 per cent of all transportation by 2020, but that target already has been eclipsed, says Peter Stary, the city's bicycle co-ordinator.
With planning decisions over the past decade, Vancouver has successfully promoted high-density residential development in the core, making it easier for people to get around without a car.