Cycling to work is a fun way to save money, stay healthy and reduce carbon emissions.
Using public transport or driving into work is often seen as the more time efficient and simpler option - but by following this safe cycling guide, you can help your staff feel safe and confident with the idea of cycling to the work.
Plan your route
The best way to start cycling to work is to make sure your staff have a route mapped out – and you can do this by using a cycle route planner. National Cycle Network and Transport for London both have brilliant route planning capabilities that indicate quieter routes, as well as the quickest ways to get from A to B. By using these apps, employees will have the option to skip out busy roads and roundabouts, which often deter those thinking of cycling to work.
Try the route on a weekend
It is also worth encouraging your staff to try the route on a weekend. This is the perfect way to become familiar with a journey and gage how long it will take to get to the office. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that extra time may be needed during weekdays to accommodate for traffic.
Start slowly
Expecting your employees who may have never cycled to work before to start cycling to work every day is very unrealistic, so often a more gradual approach is best. For some employees, it may be worth cycling to work once a week to begin with, or supplementing their cycle with another form of transport, or perhaps only cycling when the weather is nice. These are all great strategies that will help employees increase their confidence when cycling to work and help prevent them from getting overwhelmed. As confidence in their cycling commute improves, it is likely that employees will choose to cycle more often.
Start later and don’t book in any meetings first thing
As an employer, it is important to set up a culture in the office that promotes and supports employees who start cycling to work. Try to ensure that, when employees start cycling to work, there are no big deadlines or important meetings scheduled for the mornings, as this will help those struggling to get their timings right with their new commute.
Don’t push yourself and enjoy it
Not only is it beneficial to gradually start cycling to work, it’s also a good idea to cycle to work slowly.
Employees should leave plenty of time in the morning, so their cycle feels more like a commute and less like a race. By leaving for the office only ten minutes earlier than necessary, employees will find the journey much more laid back and enjoyable.
Even though it’s good to promote taking it slow, as an employer, you should also encourage your team to take some spare clothes to work and use changing rooms and showers if available.
To ensure your employees have all the necessary facilities to cycle to work, using office space that has plentiful bike racks, like our centre The Green House which has over 70 bike racks. Furthermore, it has showers for people to use so they feel fresh and ready for the day after having cycled in.
Add lights to your bike
Like with anything, safety in cycling is the number one priority and it’s important that those who cycle to work are confident in their abilities and follow road safety procedures.
On top of this, bike lights are extremely important for safe cycling, especially in the winter months, so make sure that there are always some spare in the office.
Ask a friend to cycle with you
If you have employees that live close to each other, encourage them to start cycling to work together. Not only will this make the commute safer, more sociable, and enjoyable, but it will also help build workplace relationships and cohesion.
Another good idea is to make sure that employees always have access to a back-up form of transport. In this case, if an employee isn’t feeling confident on their bike, they have another way of making it to the office.
By using these cycling to work tips to promote and support employees, soon much of the office will be using a bike to get to work.