There's a preliminary conversation going on with the Y downtown concerning shower memberships. I've been tasked to figure out some price points.
What would a Y shower be worth to you. This would include an option for all day secure bike parking?
Daily
Monthly
Annual
How much is a typical downtown gym membership? $60-70/month? I would say $35-40/month for showers and bike parking.
Daily is a little harder to figure. $4?
I don't work downtown, so I'm kind of making this up.
Consider the cost of 1) RT bus fare 2) a monthly bus pass or 3) parking a car. Does that make the shower-only cost look reasonable?
I think what the Y was charging at the time I looked into it ($50, plus initiation fee, I think) was pretty reasonable for a montly rate--far less than parking and/or bus.
The initiation fee can be the killer, though. Maybe they could just do away with that?
I actually got a bally's membership at the downtown Bally's for the what works out to aout 15 dollars a month by gettign 2 freinds to join for 3 years. worked out to about 550 a person for a 3 year membership. and its good at all Pittbsurgh area ballys. Note you have to sign up at the downtown ballys to have access at that club downtown and all other pittsburgh clubs if you sign up at a club in the suburbs it is not good downtown.
Also you need to wath for the add a friend or family special for 249 per person.
I think it's got to be less than the cost of taking the bus round trip. So if biking is to be say 25% cheaper than transit somewhere around $3/day or $55/month. Otherwise you lose the cost benefit argument of bicycle commuting. I would think you need to be at least 25% cheaper than PAT for the cost saving bullet to show up on the bike commuting marketing pitches and have people care about it.
But there's also time savings that should be factored into that equation. When I worked downtown, the bus trip from Morningside took roughly 35 minutes. Add to that the fact that I had to be at the bus stop at a particular time (and after 8:15 AM my goose was cooked because that was the last bus downtown). I could get downtown on my bike, riding safely at a reasonable pace, in 25 minutes. Given the additional 10 minutes it took to get from the stop downtown to my office, riding my bike gave me a minimum of 40 extra minutes a day (and this doesn't account for the extra time saved by not having to exercise after I took the bus home).
Given all of that, I'd be willing to spend $10-$20 over the cost of a bus pass each month for access to a shower.
That is, if I cared about showering when I got to work 
That's actually a good point. Lots of people really don't care about a shower as long as the commute isn't too long and the weather not too hot. When promoting this option we're gonna be clear that a shower is not vital to bike commuting, but if its of concern it will be useful to have it available.
"No showers" is a common excuse among the reasons people don't bike to work, yet the majority of bike commuters from what I've read and seen don't feel they need a shower once they arrive to their destination.
If I had the option to shower I more than likely would after riding instead of before. But I agree it isn't a must have.
Zone 1 monthlies are $75, Zone 2 is $90. I know if I biked in from my Zone 2 home daily, I'd need a shower more often than not. On wet or sloppy days, I'd appreciate just having a nice place to change from riding gear to street clothes even if I skipped the shower.
I have been commuting about 7 miles one way year round for 7 years now. The only time I felt a need to shower (we have one in our building) was when I stopped on the way in on New Years day to jump in the river with the Polar Bear club. I just change in a restroom stall 20 steps from my office.
