How to engage diverse communities with bike share: 1) cultivate relationships

One of the issues that many bike share systems are working to figure out is how to engage all residents, and not just a select few. This week, in order to address that challenge, we are running a blog series on best practices in outreach.

Through each post we’re releasing a printable one-pager (below) that addresses a key component of meaningful bike share outreach. These components, identified through interviews with several high-outreach systems and their community-based partners, are 1) cultivating relationships, 2) learning about your riders, and 3) building employment opportunities. We hope that the one-pagers can serve as a resource for systems seeking to build a ridership reflective of overall community demographics.

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1) Cultivate relationships

Today’s one-pager is on relationship building with potential bike share users. Though the concept may sound simple or familiar, there are actually several ways to go about forging new relationships and strengthening older ones. This resource discusses community ambassadors, as well as other types of community partnerships and activities.

> Download the BBSP one-pager on relationship building. 

You can also download the second and third one-pagers in the outreach series here:

>Download the BBSP one-pager on learning about your riders.

>Download the BBSP one-pager on engaging with workforce development through bike share.

We would like to thank Carniesha Kwashie at City of Philadelphia, Caressa Givens at Bublr Bikes, and Aysu Kirac at Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation for contributing to this resource.

The Better Bike Share Partnership is a JPB Foundation-funded collaboration between the City of Philadelphia, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) and the PeopleForBikes Foundation to build equitable and replicable bike share systems. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or sign up for our weekly newsletter. Story tip? Write stefani@peopleforbikes.org.