promoting cycling

As well as being an effective method to reduce congestion and travel costs, cycling is also a great way to introduce physical activity into everyday life. Employees who build exercise into their day are likely to be healthier and more alert at work. With only a little effort on your part, cycling can make up a significant proportion of commutes to your organisation’s site.

Cycle parking

Improving the standard and availability of cycle parking is one of the most immediate things that you can do to encourage cycling to work. There is much guidance available on this issue, (see our guidance section) though the main principles are that the facility is secure and is located in a place where it is highly visible (right next to the main entrance is perfect). It’s also better to make sure the bikes are under cover as cycle chains can rust in the rain.

Cycling mileage allowance

If employees are using their own bikes for business trips, why not pay them a mileage rate, just like for cars? HMRC will allow mileage rates of up to 20p per mile for cycling trips. While actual costs for cycling are more like 10-12p per mile, offering the full 20p will be a clear indication of your organisation’s environmental credentials… and will be a lot cheaper than 40p per mile for cars!

Bicycle User Groups

Setting up a Bicycle User Group (or BUG) can be great at helping you identify cycle-related issues both on-site and in the surrounding area. Any problems they raise can be easily fed into your travel plan and passed onto the local authority to help encourage more people to take up cycling. The group will also act as a social group and will often invite non-cyclists along, giving them advice and support on starting out.

Pool bikes

Pool bikes are made available for short, work-related journeys. They can also be used by staff for other purposes, for instance for leisure rides at lunchtime, which can often provide encouragement for non-cyclists, getting them used to the idea of riding a bike again.

Changing Facilities

Though showering is generally not necessary after a ride at modest commuting speeds, many cyclists prefer not to cycle in their work clothes, therefore showers, lockers and changing facilities can be a major factor in encouraging cycling.

Salary Sacrifice Bike Purchase

It’s possible to offer cycle hire to your employees through the government’s Cycle to Work Scheme. This allows your organisation to purchase a bike and loan it to an employee over 12 or 18 months, with the money coming straight out of their gross wages, thereby saving them at least 30%. At the end of hire period, you can choose to sell the bike to the employee for a ‘fair market value’.

This type of ‘salary sacrifice’ scheme can bring significant tax savings for the employee, as well as reducing your employer’s National Insurance contributions.  For more information you can read the Department for Transport's guidance on this.

Cycle 'salary sacrifice' schemes are always popular and successful amongst employees. Several companies offer a scheme which will take a lot of the admin out of the process; check out our Resources page for links. Nevertheless, there is still some admin time required from your accounts department, but remember that you can typically save up to £100 in NI costs for each employee that takes part; many employers use this to offset the admin costs, and reckon that having a healtheir workforce brings its own benefits!

Provision of cycle maps

Free, detailed cycle maps are available for each district in Tyne & Wear. Contact your local Council's Travel Plan Officer if you would like a batch of paper maps for your employees - see the Resources page for contact details. Otherwise you can download the cycle maps from our 'Go Smarter' section. Why not provide a link to this page on your company Extranet?