Incentivising cycling at work

[wiggydiggy]

That calculation is only valid for a dedicated commuting car.

If you would own a car independently of the commuting use, then only marginal commuting costs are relevant: Parking, Commuting Fuel, and Commuting proportion of service/consumables. Standing charge elements eg Insurance, tax, MOT etc are not saved.

Well reminded and I know Some people might not do it that way.

I used a few different calculators and averaged it as they all work a little differently but some already factor that in, if not I factored that in manually e.g. I calculated my commuting fuel use only, only used the additional insurance charge when I selected 'commuting' as a use for the car.

I did use some other standing charges elements, but as a % of the total. So if I commuted 1000 miles, and my annual mileage was 3000, I'd say it's fair to add 25% of the standing charges to the cost per journey.

Even if I'm out by 100% and the cost was only £10 per journey that's still too high for me now.

 

[cougie uk]

This year has been unusually dry, but even so, in Wales I have been rained on in every month while cycling. More in the winter than the summer of course. And in the winter, even when it isn't raining, the roads are more often than not wet enough that spray will get you wet.

I can see Wales from my house so my weather can't be hugely different.
Did get soaked one July ride but mudguards make a lot of sense. Especially on a commuting bike.

 

[Alex321]

I can see Wales from my house so my weather can't be hugely different.
Did get soaked one July ride but mudguards make a lot of sense. Especially on a commuting bike.

Yes, I always keep the mudguards on.

I got rained on heavily on the way to work a fortnight ago. Last week was dry, I only went in one day last week, and will be again this week, as I have Friday off.

 

[wiggydiggy]

I can see Wales from my house so my weather can't be hugely different.
Did get soaked one July ride but mudguards make a lot of sense. Especially on a commuting bike.

Mudguards always! Its not just rain for me - theres all sorts of random crap on the sides of a road (and various animal droppings!) I might accidently go through and want protecting from.

 

[si_c]

Mudguards always! Its not just rain for me - theres all sorts of random crap on the sides of a road (and various animal droppings!) I might accidently go through and want protecting from.

Too true, when I used to commute to the office I rode with a few guys from the LBS who took the same route as me, they didn't use mudguards. One section of the route involved passing through a bit of marshland with a cycleway across it that doubled as a sheep sanctuary. Any time it rained the path became slick with sheep shoot and I always made sure I rode on front for that bit, one of the other two invariably had a faceful. Not pleasant.

 

[cougie uk]

Too true, when I used to commute to the office I rode with a few guys from the LBS who took the same route as me, they didn't use mudguards. One section of the route involved passing through a bit of marshland with a cycleway across it that doubled as a sheep sanctuary. Any time it rained the path became slick with sheep shoot and I always made sure I rode on front for that bit, one of the other two invariably had a faceful. Not pleasant.

Burton Marsh ? Yes that can be awful sometimes but a pretty nice commute.

 

[si_c]

Burton Marsh ? Yes that can be awful sometimes but a pretty nice commute.

Yeah, how did you guess

It's pretty grim sometimes, not as grim as getting sheep poo out from between your teeth however. During summer it's really nice though, passed through there yesterday evening, lovely and warm and no midges.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I thought this video may be interesting. It is about the situation in Germany, although it is in English, and makes a good economic case for living car free without condemning people. One interesting point he does make is that contrary to claims made by the Daily Mail, is isn't cyclists who are "freeloading" but car drivers: we all subsidise car use.

 

[matticus]

If we keep avoiding progress because of a few outlier cases, the world is doomed.

MOST of the problem cases should be solved by other means:
- campaing for better/cheaper public transport
- pay the working classes (and carers, shift-based NHS etc etc) more
- tax the drivers to pay for above
- if an employer relocates you, THEY should pay for the associated costs!

Or we just let everyone keep driving whenever it suits them, never encouraging active travel, until the world burns or floods us out our homes ... :👍

 

[Big T]

The company I worked for prior to retirement moved from the suburbs to a city centre office. In the new office, there was limited parking on site and the office then fell within the boundary of the Nottingham Workplace Parking Levy, which is about £400 per parking place per year. It was a shared building, so of the 50 or so parking spaces we would have been entitled to about 15 parking spaces. We had a staff of about 120 based at the office. Rather than try and ration the parking between the staff, senior managers decided that there would be no staff parking on site, if you wanted to drive in to the office you would have to pay to park in one of the council run car parks, or use the park and ride. This really incentivised cycling within the office. Up to a quarter of the people regularly cycled in to the office. We had showers and secure parking in the undercroft of the building (where the car park is).

We, as a company, gave away our parking entitlement to the other organisations on site, but that also meant we didn’t have to pay the parking levy for them.

 

[Andy in Germany]

The company I worked for prior to retirement moved from the suburbs to a city centre office. In the new office, there was limited parking on site and the office then fell within the boundary of the Nottingham Workplace Parking Levy, which is about £400 per parking place per year. It was a shared building, so of the 50 or so parking spaces we would have been entitled to about 15 parking spaces. We had a staff of about 120 based at the office. Rather than try and ration the parking between the staff, senior managers decided that there would be no staff parking on site, if you wanted to drive in to the office you would have to pay to park in one of the council run car parks, or use the park and ride. This really incentivised cycling within the office. Up to a quarter of the people regularly cycled in to the office. We had showers and secure parking in the undercroft of the building (where the car park is).

We, as a company, gave away our parking entitlement to the other organisations on site, but that also meant we didn’t have to pay the parking levy for them.

So charging the market value instead of subsidising parking spaces encourages cycling. This says a lot about what's happening generally.

 

[DRM]

So charging the market value instead of subsidising parking spaces encourages cycling. This says a lot about what's happening generally.

Trouble is every body in Nottingham dumped their cars on side streets and did the last bit of the trip by bus, it was a nightmare at our daughters student let, and all the streets round there, a really well thought out plan, not.

 

[PK99]

Trouble is every body in Nottingham dumped their cars on side streets and did the last bit of the trip by bus, it was a nightmare at our daughters student let, and all the streets round there, a really well thought out plan, not.

The law of unintended consequences in action!

 

[wiggydiggy]

Trouble is every body in Nottingham dumped their cars on side streets and did the last bit of the trip by bus, it was a nightmare at our daughters student let, and all the streets round there, a really well thought out plan, not.

Some of the streets near me are residents permit only during term time (schools nearby). Could the Nottingham streets just need something similar to dissuade the commuter driver from parking there?

 

[PK99]

Some of the streets near me are residents permit only during term time (schools nearby). Could the Nottingham streets just need something similar to dissuade the commuter driver from parking there?

Local streets here are "Residents Only" 10am-4pm Monday to Friday. No restrictions at other times.

A very effective way of keeping out commuters but allowing free movement of Locals