National Bike Summit 2008: Opening session highlights

David A. Jones, CEO of Humana, gives keynote address at opening banquet

At the opening banquet of the 2008 National Bike Summit in Washington David A. Jones, CEO of Humana in Louisville, Kentucky, spoke.

Humana has implemented a program called Freewheelin' that rents bicycles to Humana employees in Louisville for trips between the company's building, trips around town, or just for fun.

A few highlights:

• 28% of employees signed up for the program right off the bat (2500 people)
  
  
• The program started in Sept 2007 and they have checked out 100 bikes per day since that time
  
  
• 10% of the people signed up for the program have not ridden a bicycle since childhood
  
  
• Humana's goal was to improve the health of its employees and they see the bicycle as a primary means to accomplish that goal. Pretty much anyone can ride a bicycle--young, old, people who can't run or walk much because of foot or knee problems.
  
  
• Humana is interested in seeing this program expanded to other cities and companies. They are open-sourcing the software and other aspects of the program that they use to track bicycles let participants interact by sharing ideas and routes.