Bike commuter changing facilities??

[bobg]

Just wondered how many of you who commute have facilities to change/shower etc. I have been suggesting to various members of my family that they would be far better off and possibly more healthy if they were prepared to ride the short distance to work. They all said that they would be prepared to consider it if it wasnt for the fact that they would arrive all "hot and sweaty" I suggested riding slowly but that cut no ice. Maybe I was lucky but I always had somwhere to change and freshen up and presumed that employers were even more prepared to provide these kinds of facilities than they were when I commuted? Help me out here please, I seem to be on the losing end of a protracted arguement

 

[Orange]

We have the changing facilities but the cycle parking facilities (under cover) are insufficient. The company wants to improve its 'greeness' but there's no budget in the present economic climate.

 

[citybabe]

The company I work for would never provide facilities for cycling. The majority of the workforce lives within 5 miles of work and they would never even think about getting on a bike.
There is a shower in the men's toilet but it is only there for a chemical spillage accident (which has never happened in the 10 years that I've worked there) and I certainly wouldn't want to shower in the men's toilet area!
There are no facilities for women.

I get a lift in with my bike from my partner and I'll cycle home but I wouldn't fancy cycling into work having no where to freshen up

 

[BearPear]

Mr BP commutes now and then and, being a sweaty b*gger, he NEEDS to shower. We both work for the local authority and he tracked down a shower in another building near his. We suspect that the "facilities" are at least 30 years old and he occasionally has to suffer a cold shower but he couldn't manage without anywhere to get washed.

If it was a 5 mile flat commute I could manage with a swish over with a wet-wipe and a change of top; he would need a full shower because of afore mentioned sweatiness, and the fact that he goes hell for leather just to get a proper work-out, regardless of distance!

 

[bobg]

Sounds like I'm on a loser so far then.
Enlightenment is not as rife as I expected. I seem to have been very lucky having access to showers, lockers, a small gym and remarkably a fully licenced bar!!

 

[andylaw79]

I'm very lucky, I'm the only person in our office who cycles and when it was built 2 years ago I got to spec my own shower room, so I have some where nice to get changed, shower and dry wet gear on a radiator. Also get to keep the bike inside too. It suited my boss too as he could lease the upstairs office with an extra alloted parking space.

 

[Theseus]

We have very good facilities.

The cycle parking is at the end of a large shed with lighting and security cameras. There are loads of Sheffield stands ( yet to count them) and the usage ranges from low in winter to full up on good days in the summer.

There are both mens and womens changing facilities. I have not been in the womens, but in the mens there are lockers (but there is a waiting list so I store my things in the ...), drying room, showers and toilet facilities.

It can be quite busy at times.

 

[2Loose]

A suite of four showers, lockers, sinks, hair dryers, clothing dryer cabinet, changing cubicles, iron and board all adjoining a secure bike park.

I do consider myself rather lucky

 

[Arch]

St Nicks doesn't have showers - it doesn't even have mains water! And about 95% of the staff cycle in (on somedays, 100%) - none of us need showers.

The Eco Business Centre does have a shower - the room housing it is actually bigger than my own bathroom at home. But neither I or my boss need it.

For decades, people cycled to work and home again, in heavy work clothes, without needing showers. Most of the time, I think the shower issue is a convenient excuse. Counter it, and there'll be something else - it'll be too hilly, or too hot or too cold, or too dangerous....

 

[mcshroom]

I sort of have a shower, in that there's a staff changing room about 1/3 mile away with showering facilities for about 2000 people, but as I don't have a locker there I have to drop all my stuff off in the office and go back out to use it so I usually don't bother. In general having a shower when I get up and using the sink in the toilets or wet wipes when I get to work is enough.

I have a 6 mile commute which is anything but flat, but the last mile is downhill so I can back off and cool down a bit before work (if I'm not running late).

 

[mac1]

At Farnborough aerodrome, the office, say <40 staff, there was quite a good shower room regularly used by cyclists. There was a healthy lifestyle attitude sort of thing. At Barclays Mercantile - the tallest building in Basingstoke - say 11 floors, 800 staff(?) built in the 80s there was nothing; reflecting a management attitude similar to just about everything else there. They were all for people cycling in, they did the cycle to work scheme - subject to an admin fee of course gotta be something in it for them - but as far as they were concerned, there was no room and they weren't going to make any - they stated when it was brought up by staff - if you wanted a shower, you'd have to use those at the sports centre 10 minutes walk away and paying £3 or so entrance fee or £36/month for membership. Consistent really, with the staff restaurant that charged far higher prices than the shops in the shopping centre next door - you could see them trying to get whatever they could out of you, whilst at the same time telling you they were doing you a favour. But there you go.

 

[Friz]

220 employees, 1 shower. There're three of us that cycle with any regularity so there's not THAT long a queue in the morning. But sure winter is on the way so I'll be back to having it all to myself.

And since we have no secure lockup we just leave the bikes in the back corridor. No one seems to mind.

 

[Dave W]

I have secure bike storage facilities, showers, a locker and a changing room plus drying facilities.

 

[Moodyman]

I have secure bike storage facilities, showers, a locker and a changing room plus drying facilities.

Me too.

 

[bobg]

Thanks for all the comments. Without counting, it seems about 50/50so far. So do you reckon things are getting/have got better since cycle commuting has gained a wider appeal? I take Arches point that in times now gone, huge numbers of the average working population would be quite happy without any facilities, I was one of them in the 60's, but that was when we ( well me...) only had a bath once a week, and work was predominently manual.