cycling infrastructure: shower power

A lot of cycling advocacy efforts seem to revolve around a few key issues. First, advocates try to get bike paths, lanes, or sharrows. It is fairly obvious why this is the start of advocacy. We need safety and the ability to get around without being hit. The next thing we tend to advocate for is bike storage/lockup opportunities. Ideas like putting bike rings on parking meters or bike racks outside of business or in parking garages allow cyclists to leave their bikes behind without fear of them being stolen. Bike theft is obviously a huge problem (or at least a concern), and so the more secure a space to park a bike, the more likely people are to use bikes for commuting, errand running, or other daily activities. In future posts, I will go deeper into my feelings on both cycling surfaces (especially WHERE we put the bike lane) and bike security.

But the focus of my infrastructure post today, as stated, is "shower power." This post is specifically about commuting to work by bike. American cyclists often point to Europe and how great the cycling culture is across the pond. Commuting to work by bike is commonplace we say, and how great that would be if we could implement it here. People then focus on the great bike lanes, often separated from the road, the pro cycling culture, etc. But my focus has always been on the differences in personal hygiene. Now, I'm not saying that Europe is comprised of unclean, un-showered workers who's offices smell like a locker room. But in the States, personal hygiene, especially with respect to fragrance, is extremely important. American's simply do not feel comfortable, or professionally acceptable by the thought of just "sweating a little" on the ride in to work. If you break a sweat, you don't feel like you should be at work. As a result, I think here we see bike commuting as something that we do before we shower, not after. Because of this, the ability to shower at or near work becomes very important. Many people do not want to join a gym (understandably) just to shower. In big cities, gym memberships are often $80/month or even more. When cycling starts costing you more money than driving, the odds of it catching on go down dramatically. It has been my feeling for a while that if developers are going to build large office buildings, the kind with hundreds if not thousands of workers, they should be required to build out some showering facilities. I am rarely one for laws and regulations, but sometimes they just make sense. In the same way that we require office buildings to provide some sort of bathroom facilities, I think that shower facilities are a must. Office buildings are put up with huge parking garages or lots dedicated to driving infrastructure. Cycling infrastructure does not end at a parking spot, but rather the ability to be professionally presentable after the commute.

By providing the minimal infrastructure of shower facilities at offices, a building has provided its workforce another commuting option. It is critical in the support and development of alternative commuting methods that we provide the necessary infrastructure to help facilitate a change.