Want to Commute to work via bike in the north?

[Mudguard]

Hi,

My names James and we are trying to change the northern perception of commuting to work on bikes. In London a large majority of employees all cycle to work and adequate facilities are provided by their employer in order to store their bikes and clothes. However, in the North very few corporations offer such services. In fact, through research, I am finding that not many people, in the North West especially, have a recent bike in which they ride and regularly ride and maintain!

This is something that we want to change through the use of offering companies bike schems in which bikes are made available to all employees to use or hire and all the correct facilities are put in place. We want to urge companies in the North to follow the trend that London has set.

I am unsure what all you fellow cyclists thing of what we are trying to do? All opinions welcome? I cycle to work everyday and the money and time I save is incredible!

Thanks for your help and time.

James

 

[Cubist]

Hi,

My names James and we are trying to change the northern perception of commuting to work on bikes. In London a large majority of employees all cycle to work and adequate facilities are provided by their employer in order to store their bikes and clothes. However, in the North very few corporations offer such services. In fact, through research, I am finding that not many people, in the North West especially, have a recent bike in which they ride and regularly ride and maintain!

This is something that we want to change through the use of offering companies bike schems in which bikes are made available to all employees to use or hire and all the correct facilities are put in place. We want to urge companies in the North to follow the trend that London has set.

I am unsure what all you fellow cyclists thing of what we are trying to do? All opinions welcome? I cycle to work everyday and the money and time I save is incredible!

Thanks for your help and time.

James

Define"North" without getting yourself into all sorts of hot water here!

Seriously good work, but in this day and age people have "normalised" the car and in places where riding a bike is difficult or takes a huge level of fitness etc, then people will view cyclists as eccentric or "up themselves".

I live and work in Huddersfield (a long way south of Glasgow!!!) where the town centre is at the meeting point of several valleys, all of which need a serious amount of climbing to escape by. As an example my commute home is 6 miles long with a total climb of 1000 feet or so.

I work for an organisation where the majority of the workforce are expected to be reasonably fit. We had a bike to work scheme and a year on there are five or six regular cycle commuters, and maybe another half-dozen fair-weather cyclists. There are about 700 people in the workplace, so the promise of a cheap bike to 700 fit (ish) workers had a take up rate of less than 2 percent.

It isn't therefore necessarily the cost of the bike, you will have to work very hard to change the attitudes of people who aren't prepared to sweat and toil before and after work (but, bizarrely, will go to the gym before they jump into their cars!)

 

[snorri]

My names James and we are trying to change the northern perception of commuting to work on bikes.

We don't do commuting in the north, commuting is a southern term, we just go to work by the most convenient means available.

 

[Moodyman]

Agree with Cubist. I live in Bradford but commute to Leeds.

Leeds is bigger and flatter with heavier traffic. But Leeds Council has gone out of its way to discourage driving into the centre by making lot of roads one way. This encourages folk to cycle and you can see that Leeds has a bigger cycling culture.

Bradford, like Huddersfield, is in a big bowl and to get out, one has to climb steep hills. It's not easy, unless you're fit. Plus, the City's council has done little to promote cycling, although they've been more active recently.

Change comes about due to necessity. I think when Bradford and other northern cities become nearly as busy and London, folk might be inclined to leave their cars.