You sit in a chair. The chair is plastic. The room is hot. The manager stands at the front of the room. The manager has a laser pointer. The manager points the laser at a screen. The screen shows a bar graph. The bar graph is green.

The green bars represent employees who ride a bicycle to work. The bars are taller this year. The manager smiles. The manager says the company has a great culture. The manager says the cycling program is a success.

You look at the green bars. You look at the manager. You think about your hallway. You think about the stairs in your building. You think about the door to your apartment. The manager does not talk about hallways. The manager does not talk about stairs. The manager only talks about the bike rack in the office. The manager measures arrivals. The manager misses departures.

The Metric of Departure

I am a researcher. My name is Harper W.J. I study how crowds move. I study how people use space. I started a diet at 4:00 PM today. It is now 5:45 PM. I am hungry. I am irritable. I look at data all day. Data can lie. Data can hide the truth.

The manager’s data hides the truth about the commute. The data shows who arrived. The data does not show who stayed home. The data does not show why they stayed home. The commute starts in the bedroom. You wake up. You put on your shoes. You look at your bike.

The bike is in the hallway. The hallway is narrow. The bike is heavy. You must move the bike to get to the door. You must lift the bike. You must carry the bike down three flights of stairs. The stairs are wood. The stairs are steep. This is the departure. This is the hard part of the day.

Frederick Taylor’s Ghost

In 1911, a man named Frederick Taylor wrote a book. The book was titled The Principles of Scientific Management. Taylor watched men work. He watched men move pig iron at a steel plant. He used a stopwatch. He measured how many tons of iron a man could move in one day.

He called this efficiency. He did not measure the pain in the man’s back. He did not measure the exhaustion in the man’s legs. He only measured the iron. The iron moved. The manager was happy. The man was broken.

The manager in your meeting is like Frederick Taylor. The manager measures the bike in the rack. The manager does not measure the effort in the hallway. The manager does not measure the stress of the stairs. This is a mistake. This is a measurement bias. It turns a domestic arrangement into a metric of enthusiasm.

Some employees have a garage. A garage is a room for a car. A garage is on the ground. A garage has a big door. An employee with a garage can walk to the bike. The employee can push a button. The door opens. The employee rides the bike out. This is easy. This employee is in the 12%. This employee is a green bar on the graph.

The 60-Pound Electric Friction

You do not have a garage. You have a walk-up apartment. You have a 60-pound electric bike. The bike is made of steel. The bike is made of lead. You try to lift the bike. You hit the wall. The wall has a tire mark. The tire mark is black. You hit the door frame. The door frame has a scratch.

You carry the bike down the first flight of stairs. Your heart beats fast. You carry the bike down the second flight of stairs. Your arms shake. You reach the street. You are tired. You have not started the ride yet. The manager thinks you lack enthusiasm. The manager thinks you do not care about the planet.

The manager is wrong. You care about the planet. You do not care for the 60-pound bike. You do not care for the stairs. The manager sees a difference in spirit. I see a difference in infrastructure. A company can buy a bike rack. A company can buy a shower. A company cannot buy you a garage.

Friction Stops Movement

I want a sandwich. I am very hungry. The diet was a bad idea. I am thinking about the bread in my cupboard. The cupboard is behind my bike. I have a bike in my kitchen. It is a large bike. It is a heavy bike. I have to move the bike to eat. This is a friction. Friction stops movement.

Weight is the primary friction of the bicycle commute. If a bike is heavy, the bike stays inside. If a bike is light, the bike moves. Digital tools do not solve this. Apps do not solve this. Only material science solves this. Carbon fiber is a material. It is a light material. It is a strong material. Urtopia makes bicycles from carbon fiber. The material changes the departure. The material changes the hallway.

The Carbon 1 Pro is a bicycle. The Carbon 1 Pro weighs 37 pounds. This is a specific number. 37 pounds is less than 60 pounds. You can lift 37 pounds. You can carry 37 pounds down the stairs. You do not hit the wall. You do not scratch the door. The bike fits in the hallway. The bike fits in the kitchen. When the bike is light, the departure is easy. When the departure is easy, the arrival happens.

The Problem of the Small Elevator

There is another model. It is called the Fold ST. It is a carbon fold step-through bike. It also weighs 37 pounds. It folds into a small shape. You can put the bike in a closet. You can put the bike under a desk. You can take the bike in an elevator. This bike solves the problem of the narrow hall. This bike solves the problem of the small apartment.

“Sarah was tired of the elevator. The elevator in her building is small. Her bike did not fit in the elevator. She had to stand the bike on its back wheel. The bike was heavy. The bike fell on her foot. Her foot turned blue.”

– Sarah, Architect

The manager does not know about the Fold ST. The manager does not know about carbon fiber. The manager only knows about the green bars. The manager thinks the bars go up because of the office culture. The manager is taking credit for things he does not understand.

The manager marked Sarah as “non-participating.” The manager put Sarah in the red category. The manager thought Sarah lost her enthusiasm. Sarah did not lose her enthusiasm. Sarah lost the use of her foot. Sarah lost her patience with a 70-pound machine.

If Sarah had an Atom, things might be different. The Atom is a carbon e-bike. It has a 750W motor. It is light for a bike with that power. It is the first of its kind. Sarah could lift the bike. Sarah could fit the bike in the elevator. Sarah would be a green bar on the graph. The manager would smile at Sarah.

We must measure the right things. If we want more people to ride, we must look at the home. We must look at the handling of the bike. A bike is a vehicle for the road. A bike is also an object in a room. Most people spend more time storing the bike than riding the bike.

Urtopia has a network of 1,200 bike shops. You can go to a shop. You can lift the bike. You can feel the 37 pounds. You can see the carbon fiber. You can see the Fold 2. This is important. You must know if you can carry the bike before you buy the bike. You must know if the bike fits your life.

The Real Story is in the Hallway

I am going to break my diet. I am going to eat a sandwich. I cannot think about data anymore. I cannot think about Frederick Taylor and his pig iron. I can only think about the ham in my fridge. I have to move my bike to get to the ham. My bike is heavy. I am going to sell my bike.

I am going to get a lighter bike. I want a bike that does not block the fridge. I want a bike that does not own my hallway.

The next time you are in a meeting, look at the charts. Look at the green bars. Ask the manager about the stairs. Ask the manager about the hallways. Ask the manager how much the bikes weigh. If the manager does not know, the manager is not managing. The manager is just watching the iron move.

The departure is the metric that matters. If the departure is a struggle, the program is a failure. We need better materials. We need to stop lying to ourselves with simple graphs. A green bar is not a culture. A green bar is just a bike in a rack. The real story is in the hallway. The real story is 37 pounds of carbon fiber.

I am going to eat my sandwich now. The hallway is clear. The bike is light. The departure is tomorrow. I will be ready.