Helping staff out of the car

Currently only 3% of people travel to work by bike but experience shows that positive action by local authorities and employers can tempt employees out of their cars.

Summertime - and the cycling is easy at Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge, where up to one thousand workers cycle to work each day - around a fifth of all staff.

Facilities to encourage people out of their cars and onto their two wheelers include cycle parking spaces for 1,300 bikes, showers, cycle paths round the hospital grounds, a mobile bike repair workshop two mornings a week and interest-free loans to buy bikes and equipment of up to £500.

Addenbrooke's developed these facilities in response to a squeeze on car parking space and planning restrictions that limit the growth of parking spaces. In addition, like many other hospitals, it sees itself as having a responsibility to promote forms of travel that do not contribute to pollution and its associated health problems. The Addenbrooke's access travel manager Wyn Hughes told Labour Research that "there is now a strong health agenda encouraging more active travel, namely cycling and walking".

The government promoted cycling in its 1998 transport white paper as a way of achieving targets on traffic reduction, air quality and the health of the nation. And an increase in funding for local transport in the government's 10-year transport plan launched in 2000 was also intended to encourage the growth of sustainable modes of travel such as walking and cycling.

Cycle journeys unchanged

The National Cycle Strategy was launched in July 1996, aiming to double the number of cycle trips by the end of 2002, and quadruple it by 2012. So far progress is not very encouraging, with the number of cycle journeys per person each year remaining at 16 in 1998-2000, no change from 1996.

A spokesperson for the Department for Transport told Labour Research that it has long been recognised that the 2002 target would not be reached, but that it is "confident" that the 2012 target will be met now that the National Cycling Development Board and the local transport strategy is in place.

Currently only 3% of people travel to work by bicycle, so there is a lot of work to be done. But there is evidence that action at local level by local authorities and employers can alter how employees get to work.

One element of the government's transport policy is encouraging employers to develop travel plans (formerly known as green transport plans), aimed at reducing car use for travel to work and for business travel (see box top). The provision of cycle facilities is a common feature of a travel plan, which could also include promoting car-sharing schemes, negotiating improved bus services or restricting car parking.

At Addenbrooke's hospital, the travel plan also contains elements for those who do not wish to cycle. It has been promoting bus use and has worked with the local council and bus operators to build a bus station in one of the car parks, providing around 50 buses an hour. This has resulted in an increase in bus use from 4% of staff in 1993 to 16% in 2001, with greater increases expected this year.

Getting staff to leave their cars at home is often a contentious issue, and at Addenbrooke's staff are consulted on all aspects of the hospital's travel plan through the management staff forum that includes union representatives.

UNISON national officer Dick Barry says: "Staff should be involved in drawing up travel plans from the beginning so that they don't feel that they are having a benefit taken away". He added that, if a plan is introduced with consultation, "they can see that green travel plans bring benefits all round. Those who really need to use a car shouldn't have anything to fear from a travel plan".

A government guide on the role of human resources staff and trade union representatives in travel plans recognises the concerns staff may have, saying: "It is important that staff are reassured about the purpose of travel plans and understand that it is not about reducing employee benefits". And it points out that, "at present, employees who drive to work and who are provided with a parking space are receiving a benefit that employees who do not drive to work do not receive".

At Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust the union staff side secretary Peter Oxenham told Labour Research that "the unions have been proactive in encouraging members to take up the issue of cycling". He said that members had reacted very positively to incentives to give up their car park passes that included interest-free cycle loans and secure cycle parking and that more were now cycling to work.

The London Borough of Richmond has produced a leaflet for staff extolling the benefits of cycling. These include:

* lower travel costs;

* increased fitness;

* reduced risk of heart attack;

* shedding excess weight; and

* reducing stress.

And if this isn't enough to tempt people to cycle, some employers offer financial incentives. At GlaxoSmithKline, under the bike-mile scheme, staff collect stamps for every mile they cycle, which can be traded in at the local cycle shop.

Other employers pay their staff not to drive. BAA Heathrow, for example, introduced a scheme to pay employees £200 to give up their car parking space. And at Pfizer employees get a swipe card with a credit of £400. A fee is deducted each time the card is used to enter the car park, and any credit remaining at the end of the year can be traded in for cash.

Work journeys

Another way of reducing car use is to encourage staff to use bicycles for travel in the course of their work. The London Borough of Richmond has four pool cycles for staff to use for work journeys, which are in use on a daily basis. As a further incentive to cycle rather than drive for council business, it pays a mileage allowance for staff that use their own bikes during work of 50p per mile - 5p more than the car mileage allowance.

The government has made available £2 million through its Cycling Projects Fund to support initiatives that will lead to an increase in cycling. The first 10 grants, announced in June, include two awards to employers proposing to improve cycle facilities for staff - St George's Healthcare Trust in London and University of Bristol (see box).

However one of the major deterrents to cycling for many people are concerns about road safety. This is a far harder problem for employers to address but some have tried to take this on board through discussions with local councils about developing cycle routes to the workplace.

The London Cycle Campaign (LCC) set up a corporate affiliation scheme in response to approaches from employers who wanted to see improvements in conditions for cyclists. The LCC, whose activities include campaigning for safe cycle routes across London, now has around a dozen employers signed up to its corporate scheme and provides advice to employers on how to become more cycle friendly.

In Cambridge the Cycle Friendly Employers Scheme has 22 organisations among its members, including public sector bodies such as local authorities, hospitals and universities, and a number of science and technology companies. It also provides advice to employers, including a model company cycle plan (available from its website at www.cfe.org.uk).

Received grants

And in Nottingham a similar grouping of employers and local authorities got together in 1996 to form the Nottingham Cycle Friendly Employers Project and received grants totalling £225,000 to encourage cycling in the area.

With the introduction of congestion charging in London next year, and possibly other cities later, it is likely that increasing numbers of employees will be looking for alternatives to the car. Some may find that getting on a bike provides a cheap and healthy option.

Boffins on their bikes

In the three years after the University of Bristol introduced a travel plan in 1998, the proportion of staff cycling to work rose from 2% to 9%. There was also a 27% reduction in single-occupancy car journeys over the same period.

Cycle-friendly measures taken by the university include:

* free cycle training provided by a local training organisation;

* locked and covered cycle parking;

* shower and changing facilities;

* interest-free loans to buy bikes and cycling equipment up to £500; and

* a cycle mileage allowance of 10p for travel during work.

Travel plans

The government is encouraging employers to develop travel plans to reduce car use for travel to work and for business travel, and is leading by example in committing all its departments and agencies to having a travel plan in place.

It is also providing a budget of £9 million over three years to help local authorities to employ 111 travel plan advisors across the country to help schools, businesses and other organisations implement travel plans.

There is also strong encouragement for local authorities and hospitals to have such plans.

A survey for the Department for Transport found a significant increase in the introduction of travel plans among local authorities, with 24% having one in place in 2001 and a further 45% in the process of developing one. In 1998 only 3% of local authorities had a travel plan.

By 2002 61% of hospitals surveyed also had, or were developing, a travel plan.

Yet only 7% of businesses had one and only another 4% were considering introducing one.