Boosting small businesses via discounts for people who bike—e.g., The HER Helmet Thursdays Project!

The California Bicycle Coalition / CalBike’s first 2024 Summit Advance Session, on November 29, 2023, was “Success Stories from San Diego.” That included a presentation by Anar Salayev, the executive director of our fellow CalBike partner Bike SD. He referred to the importance of recognizing the needs of small businesses while advocating for changes that make streets safer for people who bike and walk. One solution he suggested: small-business discount programs; i.e., Bike SD is currently working to develop a “bikes mean business” coupon book. Hear his comments @ 29:50 https://youtu.be/pPxwq0fs1xY?si=neFweJcmoT7isBI7&t=1790.

For some history of such discount programs—including the HER Helmet Thursdays Project launched by Bicycling Monterey—refer to https://bikemonterey.org/wp-content/uploads/Discounts-when-people-bike-US-sampling-1.pdf.

The HER Helmet Thursdays Project

November is anniversary month for Monterey County’s HER Helmet Thursdays Project, launched by Bicycling Monterey in 2009. For the 2024 staff reference sheet, click here. To volunteer or contribute to restore the project’s database (more on that below), please phone us.

Although the HER Helmet Thursdays Project in Monterey County remains in place, beginning in 2020 the hundreds of participating businesses and organizations were impacted by the pandemic—including that some closed permanently. In addition, since summer 2022 the HER Helmet Thursdays database is down. Support is needed to restore the database as well as to update the listings guide (https://bikemonterey.org/wp-content/uploads/10th-Anniversary-HER-Helmet-Thursdays-Guide-Listings-as-of-January-2020.pdf). If you might be able to help by contributing financially or by contributing time, please phone us.

As with all Bicycling Monterey projects since 2009, Bicycling Monterey’s founder has done all work on the HER Helmet Thursdays Project as an unpaid volunteer as of April 2024.

Read a Monterey County Weekly story on how the project began: https://www.montereycountyweekly.com/opinion/local_spin/her-helmet-thursdays-cuts-carbon-emissions-and-costs/article_f283dc09-432a-59df-bc42-93e0a8062630.html. For additional history, audios, and all other details, go to https://bikemonterey.org/her-helmet-thursdays.

Watch a 2-min video intro from KSBW, January 10, 2010:

“Project Economy:  Bicycling Monterey“

https://youtu.be/0VSPKEW9eJA?t=15s