My company’s offices are fairly new, built just four or five years ago. The building covers three storeys and about three hundred people work there. There are a couple of features that you would expect to see in a modern UK office that are missing.
The car park is large, with space at the front, rear, and sides for vehicles. There is no provision, however, for bicycles. There is not a single bicycle rack. No one cycles to work, but is that because there is no provision for bicycles? With petrol prices rising inexorably towards $5 people are beginning to re-examine their journey to work and there are certainly plenty of people who live close enough to the office for cycling to be an option.
The other missing facilities are showers. The office in which I worked in the UK had showers that allowed one to freshen up if you cycled to work or exercised at lunchtime. There are several colleagues who go hiking at lunchtime, which in the California heat does work up a sweat. The absence of showers means that it one should ideally schedule meetings with them before lunch.
I don’t cycle to work and doubt that even the provision of the aforementioned facilities would encourage me. Frankly, it is quicker for me to walk to the office and this also allows me to listen to podcasts on the way to and thro.
