MB3 launches bike support for business

In the words of co-founder Bruce Keyes, Milwaukee Business by Bike has moved from its inspirational year to its inaugural year.

Known as MB3, the group of cycling advocates and business leaders has begun to help local companies promote biking as a transportation option for their workers and customers. MB3 will share best practices - what works - and lobby for improvements to make biking safer and easier.

The members will also make the case that a better environment for bicycling is good for business, said Keyes, an attorney with Foley & Lardner who specializes in urban redevelopment.

"From a purely selfish perspective, if they can solve transportation issues for their work force, they may have a better work force," he said. "On a long-term basis, the more we provide alternate transportation, the less parking footprint and the fewer issues we have."

The concept of MB3 developed primarily from discussions among Keyes and Ward Fowler, an owner of Alterra Coffee; Tom Stacey, a manager at Eppstein Uhen architects; and Mike Eitel, an owner of the Lowlands restaurant group.

Kevin Hardman, executive director of the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin, pitched in with the mind-set that MB3 would be a complement to the Bike Fed as a cycling advocacy organization.

"We'll fell we're successful if five years from now if the number of bike trips has increased, along with the number of companies that have embraced biking as a corporate objective," Keyes said.

Information on upcoming meetings and how to join MB3 can be found at the newly launched website.

For more detail on its founding, check out Dave Schlabowske's Over the Bars in Milwaukee.