THINKING ABOUT THE RANGE OF TRAVEL CHOICES
Cycling
What's so good about cycling?
It's good for the health of your staff, which is good for you as an employer.
Cycling helps keep us fit and reduces both stress, and the chance of heart disease. People who ride to work arrive invigorated and can work off the day's stress on the way home.
Cycling to, from and for work also reduces local road congestion as well as air and noise pollution and helps Australia reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
Healthy employees are more efficient, more productive and take less time off work. Employers can improve access to their site and have a greener image.
In many countries, cycling is an accepted way of getting around in everyday life. We often think there is something culturally specific about these countries that makes people there more likely to cycle, but this isn't the case.
In countries such as the Netherlands and Denmark, they too faced increasing urban sprawl and traffic congestion, but they made different choices. In Australia, we say -the journeys we have to make are so long- but this often isn't true. People can comfortably cycle 5 kilometres and many work journeys may be just that distance.
For longer distances, staff can combine cycling with other forms of travel, such as public transport.
For more information on promoting cycling:
Listed below are some cycling ideas you can include in your access plan:
- Establish an internal Bicycle Users Group (BUG). BUGs are formed by people who want to work together to improve facilities for cyclists and encourage cycling. Forming a BUG can help staff decide what they want at your place of work and plan how to get it
- Develop a 'bike buddy' scheme for inexperienced cyclists
- Organise a cyclists' breakfast
- Organise an after-work cycle ride. It doesn't have to be long or strenuous, and could end somewhere for drinks or dinner. The idea is not to prove how fit you all are, but to encourage people who might be reluctant to cycle, to give it a go!
- Provide sufficient cycle parking to meet peak needs
- Have good, secure cycle parking in an easily accessible location
- Provide cycle parking for visitors
- Ensure cycle parking is clearly visible or provide signage to direct people to cycle bays
- Provide or rent high-security cycle lockers
- Provide showers and changing rooms
- If you don't have showers, negotiate with a local gym or sports centre for staff to use theirs
- Provide lockers for a change of clothes
- Provide drying room/facilities
- Review condition of existing onsite cycle routes
- Upgrade or provide new onsite cycle routes
- Supply a workplace toolkit-this can consist of puncture repair equipment, a bike pump, a spare lock and lights
- Provide a pool bike-for many short work trips during the day, cycling can be quicker for getting around when you consider time taken to find a parking spot. If staff don't have their own bicycle, a work pool bike can be useful
- Come to an arrangement with a local cycle retailer for cheap servicing of staff bikes. If staff buy enough bikes from the retailer, they may agree to service them for free
- Provide interest-free loans for staff to buy a bicycle and accessories, which they then pay back from their wages
- Provide cycle mileage allowance
- Provide an onsite cycle maintenance service (either as a special one-day event or on a regular basis)
- Provide insurance cover for those cycling on work business
- Produce a map showing quiet cycle routes to the workplace. It's also a good idea to note which routes are on-road or off-road as this can make a difference to a potential cyclist
- Negotiate with your council for improvements to cycle routes used by staff
- Use cycle couriers for local deliveries
- Participate in annual events such as 'Ride to Work Day'
Cycling and Walking Benefits
As an employer, you may be wondering what you get out of promoting cycling and walking to your staff.
Consider the following points, which show that active forms of commuting are not only good for your staff, they can also be good for the bottom line:
- Businesses that encourage staff to cycle to work benefit from increased productivity as a result of improved fitness and mental health. Staff who cycle are more punctual and take less sick days due to improved health.
- Queensland Transport and Main Roads (1999). Cycle South East. Integrated Cycle Strategy for South East Queensland. Brisbane: Queensland Government.
- Absenteeism can be reduced by up to 80% by encouraging cycling to work.
Shayler, M. et.al (1993) Bikes Not Fumes: The emission and health benefits of a modal shift from motor vehicles to cycling. Cyclist's Touring Club, Surrey. - The UK Traffic Advisory Unit found that organisations that implemented cycling strategies received a return of between $1.33 and $6.50 for each $1 spent in cycle promotion, due to increased productivity.
Shayler, M. et.al (1993) Bikes Not Fumes: The emission and health benefits of a modal shift from motor vehicles to cycling. Cyclist's Touring Club, Surrey. - Absenteeism has been shown to be reduced by having healthier employees. For example, a two year study by the DuPont Corporation of the effect of its comprehensive health promotion program on absences among workers found that employees involved in the programs had a 14% decline in the number of days off. Overall, the company saved more than 11 000 days that would normally be lost to absenteeism.
Bertera, R. "The Effects of Workplace Health Promotion on Absenteeism and Employee Costs in a Large Industrial Population". American Journal of Public Health, September 1990: 1101-1105. - In a Canadian government study, the Canada Life Assurance Company saw a 4% increase in productivity amongst staff participating in an employee fitness program. Furthermore, 47% of program participants reported that they felt more alert, had better rapport with their co-workers, and generally enjoyed their work more.
Shephard, Roy. "Employee Health and Fitness: The State of the Art (The Canadian Employee Fitness and Lifestyle Project)". Preventive Medicine, 1983:12 644-653. - Swedish investigators found that mental performance was significantly better in physically fit workers than in non-fit workers. Fit workers committed 27% fewer errors on tasks involving concentration and short-term memory, as compared with the performance of non-fit workers.
Sjoberg, Hans. "Physical Fitness and Mental Performance During and After Work." Ergonomics, 1983:23 977-987.
Cycle Parking
Where to put the bicycle stands? How many do we need? And just what is a Flat Top, anyway?
While there are a few factors to be considered when installing cycle parking, it's often a lot simpler than employers may fear. However, it's important to get it right because inadequate and unsafe cycle parking stands will deter potential cyclists.
There are some good points to keep in mind when thinking about types and location of cycle parking facilities.
- Can they be easily seen by staff during the working day? The major crime in Cambridge, England is cycle theft but one area which suffers little theft is the University of Cambridge's Physics laboratories, although it uses the same style of cycle parking as other employers in the city. The reason? The stands are located outside large windows where staff are moving about-nothing deters a thief more than being easily spotted.
- Make sure they are well lit and, if possible, covered from the element-but not too covered. While the Physics laboratories in Cambridge enjoyed little cycle crime, nearby Addenbrooke's Hospital suffered a spate of theft from its new cycle shelter. The problem was that the bicycles in the shelter couldn't be seen by staff or passers-by.
- Most cyclists will be happy with something simple and solid that they can stand their bike against and lock it to. One of the best forms is the Flat Top (as shown at right).
- have you provided cycle parking for visitors? It's a good statement of your commitment to visitors to have some parking near the front door for those who might turn up by bicycle.
