What Would You Spend It On?
OK - it’s fantasy shopping time. No, not that kind of fantasy shopping.
Here’s the scene - you’re a senior manager of a medium-sized private company employing 60 people across three offices that are spread across a town, each office being no more than 4 miles apart. You’ve generated £9,000 of savings from green initiatives, and you’ve read up on the overall individual health benefits from cycling, as well as the sickness & absence benefits for businesses. So you think that getting a good number of the staff to ride to work / as part of their working day for all those cross-site meetings would be a good idea.
Cycle infrastructure in the town isn’t fantastic, but it’s a good deal better than in many parts of the UK. Between two of the three offices, there are on-road cycle lanes or off-road bike trails for most of the journey. There are Sheffield stands at just one of the offices, and all three have shower / changing facilities.
What do you spend the money on? Remember, you’ve only got £9,000!
OOh.. this sounds like fun… How hilly is the terrain?
Pretty much pancake flat. The occasional bridge up & over a railway line, but that’s about it.
£9000 / 60 = £150 per employee. That would buy an entry-level bike for each one…
I don’t know how much any of this costs but something along the lines of:
- set up the admin to implement the ‘cycle to work’ scheme.
- implement the treasury standard 11p a mile for cycling if staff get travel expenses.
- find out who the cyclists already are and get them to put their routes on a map on the company intranet so new cyclists can find a ‘buddy’ to show them the best route, or just pick up tips for a safe route. Maybe implement a ‘bike bus’ so people can ride in in groups, if they feel safer
- get senior management to cycle in (on casual Fridays at least) and spend meetings boasting about how much better they feel (that should bring the toadies in)
- get your company’s logo on cycling jackets and messenger bags and give them away to the people who do the most mileage or commute by bike the most often in a week/month/year
- free cycle training and a cycle ‘doctor’ on site once a month
- cycling-related fun, like lunchtime rides or silly races at the company picnic. Lots of people have forgotten how much fun it is to ride a bike if they haven’t done it since they were kids.
- perhaps a ‘bike library’ where people can borrow a bike for a week to see if it’s for them
- oh and a covered bike shed, and showers if that’s going to be a deal breaker for some people.
oops, sorry, you said they have showers already.
Inside the company, make sure there is a decent parking at every office. Also, a track pump and basic tools (every Dutch office provides these).
Maybe have a competition for regular cyclists. Win a really good bike (perhaps one that looks like your last blog entry).
With the rest ? I’m tempted to say what can you do with a small amount of money that leverages some more money and gets you some better facilities. It’d be nice to think you could sponsor some of your local officials to go on a trip and see how it ought to be done, but doing so could almost be counter productive given that it’ could be seen as a company paying for favours.
How about producing some public service announcements regarding bicycling for either radio or television?
The following policies are free to implement, and would go along way.
1) Allow bike parking inside / at workstations in inclement weather (or even in nice weather if people worry about bike security).
2) Allow bike commuters, who don’t have face-to-face interactions with clients, to ‘dress down’ (Polos and Jeans and non-ratty tennis shoes if desired) on days they commute (including inter-office commuting) because this allow a) people to wear more casual clothing while riding (if they choose) and b) allows them to pack (and then wear) more wrinkle resistant clothing.
3) Allow bike commuters to work ‘off shift’, meaning let them come in / leave in such a way that you get a full day’s work from them but they commute outside of prime automobile rush traffic.
4) Set aside some indoor space for bike repair / maintenance / modification during lunch hours.