By Kevin Kemper  

DBJ Staff Reporter

April 27, 2001 -- Imagine being able to eliminate your commute, exercise program, unwanted body flab and your end-of-the-day stress all in one simple step. One local group says it wants to turn that dream into reality for Dayton-area workers.

Bike Miami Valley, a nonprofit bicycle advocacy group, is starting a bike-to-work campaign called the Dayton Alternative Transportation Alliance. Bike Miami Valley officials say the program could ease traffic congestion and get people to work more quickly.

"I live in Oakwood and work on First Street (in downtown Dayton), and I can take the bus, the car, my motorcycle or a bike," said Gary Boulanger, the new executive director of Bike Miami Valley. "I've timed how long it takes for each one, and going by bike is quickest."

Bike Miami Valley began DATA to help large, local companies develop corporate bicycle commuting programs. Essentially an education campaign, DATA will help employees lobby their companies to build changing facilities and showers and purchase bike lockers for commuting bicyclists. DATA also will train human resource departments to hold workshops for employees on bicycling basics, such as rules of the road, safety and basic bicycle repairs.

Though Boulanger has yet to contact any companies, he said the idea would be to build on his group's successes. Bike Miami Valley has raised more than $2 million toward a network of paved bike paths along the Great Miami River and has forged an alliance with RTA that put bike racks on all the buses in Dayton.

DATA, he said, also would be modeled on the successful program initiated by the Washington Area Bicyclist Association in Washington, D.C.

The D.C. group is an advocate to help employees get programs established in their offices. The number of bicycle commuters in D.C. is low, about 10,000 per week, but it is growing, said WABA Project Manager Eric Gilliland. And commuters have discovered ways to make biking possible, even if they do have to wear a three-piece suit.

"What some people do is drive in once a week and bring in several changes of clothes that don't get wrinkled. Or they will put their clothes in a dry cleaner bag, roll it up like a crescent roll and it usually stays fairly wrinkle free," Gilliland said.

Boulanger admitted the DATA program won't catch on overnight.

"To really have an effect this will take a year," Boulanger said. "We think we will have one or two companies signed on by the end of the summer."

© Copyright 2001 American City Business Journals Inc.