Here’s how you can help:

• Spread the word about CommuteOrlando’s Ride Buddy/Mentor Program by distributing these mini-fliers to neighborhood bike stores, coffee shops, the office breakroom, on community bulletin boards and other public places. Simply print out this PDF and trim.
• Introduce your friends to the forum where they can ask questions, share stories and offer assistance to other cyclists.
• Participate in discussions! The more active our community of transportation cyclists, the more we will be taken seriously as a part of the transportation system.

Thanks for your help! Together we’ll make Orlando a better and better place to ride.

We have installed a forum on Commute Orlando to allow for more discussions and to provide a format for connecting ride buddies and mentors.

If you haven’t already, go take a look-see … register yourself and set up a profile. Use the forums to ask questions, find ride buddies, offer your services as a mentor, tell stories, look for or sell equipment… and connect our community of utility cyclists.

This came from a request I had made to Keri a while back.  I thought that newcomers to the Commute Orlando site who had questions to ask of all of us did not have a simple place to go.  I also wanted to find a way to get out the message of Mentorship that we had talked about a few weeks ago.

The initial setup of the Forums site features a sub-forum specifically for the mentorship program.  There are also a few other sub-forums that we can use … and thus comes my question to you!

What kind of sub-forums do you think we should set up?  Do you like what we have, or do you think something should be added/removed?  What other thoughts do you have about us opening up this kind of section to Commute Orlando? What do you think will inspire participation?

How do we differentiate between what takes place in the forums, and what we blog about on the site?  We’re getting good participation in blog comments. Discussion of articles yields great insights from our readers and we don’t want to lose that. We hope the forum stimulates even more discussion.

Anyway, we need our readers to help make the forum and mentor program successful. The more people participate, the more traffic it will draw, and the more successful the mentor program can be. We will put together a flyer to distribute at bike shops or other gathering places in the area, promoting the mentor program and directing any new riders to this site and to the Forums to ask questions, etc.  We will also highlight the Forums section on the homepage so that newcomers or those looking for mentorship would know where to go …

I’d appreciate it if our regular viewers of the site stop in to ask and answer questions that hopefully will start popping up inside.  Also, if you are interested in helping out with the Mentorship program, stop by the forum, give us a little info, and … thanks!! 

Thank you Keri for being so kind as to put this together.  

“Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.”

— H. G. Wells

Doing a little further reading, I found several cities who had instituted a Bicycle Commuting Mentor Program.  Basically,  experienced cyclists commit to helping anyone who is interested in learning how to use their bicycle for the purpose of transportation.  I thought this idea had a lot going for it.  It’s something that can start small, grow over time with others involvement, and eliminates one of the biggest obstacles in trying something like this — who can I call on for help?

Here in my office, I put up a notice on our daily email newsletter.  Here’s what I said:

Commute by Bike to Work!!

Have you thought about riding your bike to work, but were concerned about how safe it is?  Maybe you’ve tried commuting but weren’t sure how to cope with riding in the rain, in the dark or in traffic. Would you want to learn all the ins and outs of bicycle commuting?  Whatever your situation, let me, Andrew Harrell, be your “Bike Mentor” and help get you cycling to work.

I will work with you so that we can find a safe, easy commute between your neighborhood and workplace.  I can help you with all of the following:

• selecting a comfortable route
• riding safely in traffic
• choosing gear for commuting
• taking your bike on the bus
• ride with you on your first trip to work
• offer ongoing encouragement and advice
• include you in a supportive community of like-minded bike commuters.

You’ll do wonders for your health (work out while getting to work!), for your pocketbook (save gas $$), for the environment, and for your state of mind (cycling makes you feel great!)

Contact Andrew Harrell at Ext. 435 if interested!!

Initial reaction was positive, with a couple people talking to me about options on occasionally riding to work. Right now, most have concerns about weather (cold!) and riding at night.

I know right now might not be the best time to try to recruit new riders, but what I really want is to hear from the readers of CommuteOrlando (and others in the cycling community) to see if such a program could be started from the “grass roots” . My thinking is that if we had something fully fleshed out and ready to go by March 2009 (Bike Month) it is then something that we can promote and advertise locally (at LBS, campuses, etc) and possibly get a nice response from!

More specifically, does anyone have any thougths about how we could incorporate something like a Bicycle Mentoring Program here inside of CommuteOrlando (I have spoken to Keri and she is in favor). If so, what kind of set up or arrangement would we want to have? Design ideas? Features? Email forum? I’d like to see CommuteOrlando as the website people go to to sign up for this kind of mentorship — and linger to read all the other great articles and information we have available!

If it helps, here are some examples of other communities that have initiated a Bike Mentor program:

• http://bikementor.org/ (I liked the layout of this one)
• http://www.recgov.org/r&w/nihbike/mentors.html
• http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/bikesafe/case_studies.cfm (#52 — more extensive, with incentives, etc. provided by City)

Interested in hearing what you folks think about the idea … thanks for the feedback.