Biking to the office gets a little easier
Starting Friday, New Yorkers will be allowed to bring their bikes into office buildings. A city law goes into effect Dec. 11 that will require all buildings with freight elevators to let cyclists to bring their bikes onboard.
New York is the first city in the country to enact such a measure and advocates for bicycle commuting are hailing the law as a significant step forward.
“What we’ve been hearing again and again is people’s employers are accommodating,” said Wiley Norvell, a spokesman for biking advocacy group Transportation Alternatives.
The city’s Department of Transportation has encouraged bike commuting with new bike lanes. The push to be “green” has reached some corporate offices.
“Office culture is changing a lot,” Norvell said. “This sort of 1960s Madison Avenue decorum that has kept bikes out of the office is gone.”
Starting Friday
The law only applies to commercial buildings with freight elevators.
Some property owners worry freight elevators will have to be kept staffed at all hours if there are still office workers with bikes in the building.
Want to pedal to work? The new law helps, but you still need your boss’s permission before you haul your bike to your cubicle. The NYC Department of Transportation recommends talking to co-workers who might also be interested in cycling and approaching your office manager together.