Guest Post: GM Bike Share – Reducing Emissions, Increasing Productivity

In August, General Motors became the first U.S. automaker to provide a bike share program to its employees when it partnered with Zagster, a leading provider of bike share programs. The new program has brought a convenient, fun and cost effective way for GM employees to get on, off – but mostly around – the Warren Technical Center campus.

In just the first month of operations, more than 1,400 GM employees have become members of the Zagster bike share program. During an average workday, members book 80 rentals across the 50 bikes on campus, adding up to more than 1,500 bike rentals since its launch.

The 1-ride-per-1-member ratio is a critical factor of success in any program, and the fact that GM has reached this milestone so soon shows that it is well on its way to being a successful program (it can sometimes take city programs a year to reach this ratio).

While most people associate bike sharing with environmental impacts, the biggest benefit to GM is increased productivity at work. Here’s some fun with numbers:

According to reports from GM employees who use the program, Zagster saves each rider between 10 and 30 minutes a day, as it removes the time needed to wait for a shuttle bus and/or walk long distances across campus. With roughly 173 bike-able workdays per year, and 800 minutes (80 rentals x 10 minutes saved per ride) saved by GM employee each day, Zagster is on track to return about 138,400 minutes per year to GM (and this number only will grow as additional employees use the service).

To provide a frame of reference, let’s look at another set of data. An average employee works about 260 days per year (not including vacation and holidays) and 8 hours a day. This adds up to 124,800 minutes per year.

So, after just one month of operations, GM and Zagster’s bike sharing program have increased productivity to such a rate (138,400 minutes annualized) that it’s as if they will have added another full time employee (128,000 minutes) by the end of the year. Not bad for a bunch of bikes!

The productivity, health and happiness quotient of the bike sharing program will only magnify as it grows, returning benefits to employees and GM into the future.

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Tim Ericson, CEO of Zagster