Following up on our previous inquiry into the city’s Bike Checkout Program for employees, Denton Police Lt. Tom Woods speaks optimistically about a revival of the program.
Yes, we are currently working on reviving the City Employee Bike to Work Program. The program was an off-shoot of CoD Alternate Transportation Day events of some years past and was successful for a couple of years.
We created the program in attempt to bring bicycle commuting – and bicycling in general – into the mainstream in Denton with city employees setting the example. The design was to give employees the opportunity to try cycling to work without buying a bike only to find out that cycling was not for them. They could simply turn the bike in and give another employee a chance to check it out. If employees enjoyed their cycling experience we encouraged them to purchase their own bike and offered assistance in selecting the appropriate bike for their needs.
Then Councilman Mark Burroughs, donated his council staff funds to purchase eight “urban bikes” for the program. All participating employees attended an eight-hour bike safety program conducted by the police department bike patrol instructors that included classroom and on-bike sessions. The training was approved by the city as an in-service training day.
Lately there has been enough interest generated among employees that we think we can dust off the program and begin to encourage employees to try cycling again.
There are a few administrative steps we have to take and a few offical approvals needed before we do so, but I am confident we can make it happen.I’ll post updates as they occur.
