The Community Cycling Center (CCC) is set to launch a pilot project of a new service that will provide bicycles to businesses for employee use.
The Northeast Portland-based non-profit known for recycling bikes and for their youth and adult “earn a bike” programs, has partnered with the Lake Oswego campus of the communications agency Waggener Edstrom, Inc.
As part of the program, the CCC’s Alison Graves says they’ll provide two refurbished bikes as well as bike skills clinics and maintenance and repair training for two on-site coordinators. The on-site coordinators will be given 10 hours of workshops so they can perform basic repairs and preventative maintenance on the bikes. The CCC will do service calls for more complicated issues as they arise.
Garrett Dittfurth, an employee and coordinator of the project at Waggener Edstrom, says it’s all part of an effort to encourage alternative modes of transportation. Dittfurth sees the bikes as, “both healthy and environmentally friendly for anything from a work errand to a lunchtime ride.”
Also as part of the deal, Waggener Edstrom will provide a covered, secure storage area for the bicycles and employees will be able to sign bicycles out as needed.
The CCC’s Graves says the new program is an extension of their existing relationships with companies who volunteer and donate to the organization. “Instead of just asking them to volunteer,” she said, “we began to wonder, ‘what can we do for you?’… the idea was to create more of a mutually beneficial relationship with them.”