DREAM JOB ALERT
THE 25 MOST BIKE-FRIENDLY WORKPLACES IN THE WORLD. IF THEY WERE IN SOUTH AFRICA, WOULD YOU RETHINK YOUR CAREER CHOICES?
nless you’re one of the scant few who is paid to pedal a bike, you may view your job as a series of obstacles to your riding: the hours spent chained to a desk (or on your feet), the lack of safe bike parking, the spandex-phobic colleagues. ¶ But what if you didn’t have to put your bike life on hold during business hours? ¶ At these 25 companies, cyclists aren’t just tolerated, they’re rewarded – with perks ranging from free bike-share memberships to on-site spinning studios to cash benefits for commuting on two wheels. Perhaps the biggest benefit of all: spending your days with like-minded co-workers who will roll with you at lunch (or even across the country), give you kudos on Strava, and at least pretend to listen enthusiastically when you recount your Saturday long-ride exploits. ¶ To compile our rankings, our US sister publication started by poring over numerous ‘best places to work’ lists as well as the League of American Bicyclists’ Bicycle-Friendly Business award winners. They also solicited submissions from Bicycling readers. Out of this preliminary list, they selected more than 200 companies, and invited their representatives to complete a Best Companies for Cyclists survey. They considered only companies in the US that employed 100 or more people, and excluded bicycle companies and bike-advocacy organisations, as well as hospitals, schools, colleges,
and universities (out of concern that these traditionally bikefriendly entities would dominate the list of winners). ¶ Then they ranked respondents across four major categories – facilities (physical accommodations for cyclists), wellness (programmes and policies that support employee health, fitness, and work/life balance), culture (how well a company welcomes and supports cyclists), and activism (employer efforts to spread bike-friendliness beyond its campus). ¶ Here are the workplaces that topped Bicycling’s list – unless specified otherwise, descriptions apply to the company’s US flagship location.