Bikes – for – employees test at Children’s Hospital

The list of companies offering employees bicycles as a cleaner, cheaper way to get to work is about to grow.

Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center said Wednesday it plans to test such a program in mid-July. In exchange for a commitment to bike to work at least two days a week, employees will get one of four different types of bicycles, including electrically assisted models “for people who need help with the hills,” said Paolo Nunes-Ueno, the hospital’s transportation manager.

The plan is to give away 100 bicycles this year; if that goal is reached, the program may continue next year. The hospital has promoted car-less travel before; it charges employees $50 a month for parking but pays workers that much if they give up a parking space. As of last fall more than 160 of its 2,800 workers, or about 6 percent, biked to work, Nunes-Ueno said.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer