These past few weeks, I have been cycling everywhere, and I’ve noticed how easy it is to get places, no worries about traffic, lights, fines, etc. I know it can be dangerous, and there are a lot of hot-heads out there (or so people seem to say whenever I bring biking up), but if done safely, within certain boundaries of common sense, I don’t see how we’re still so bent on driving.
I have been taking the cyclist numbers, routes, incentives and rates into account, and the figures I've found are more than a little upsetting. There are about 20-30 bicycles in the shed at work, if that, where there are over 550 employees. This means that for a group of twenty people, only one of them really uses his bike. And I imagine these results must be similar around the country.
The thing I find most appalling of it all though, is how the employer is handling this. Since a fair amount of travel is required, the boss seems to think reimbursing is the solution. 70% of the employees therefore arrive and leave work by car, 62% of those alone. What a waste!
Car mileage rates range from 60p to 25p, up to and very possibly over £27000 (over a period of how much is unclear from the website, although as this is a solid salary, I'm hoping its for a year). In comparison, the cycle miles, are paid at 10.5p, to a maximum (as I've understood) of £10.
I realise not everyone can cycle, for whatever reasons, and not every distance is within cycling distance, but there are plenty of able people, with potential routes to cycle, that don't have enough of an incentive to do so.
Aside from the obvious, £10 being practically insignificant to anyone’s monthly wage (initially I thought this was weekly, which is still fairly low), and paying someone an "extra wage" (of £26750, even if this is per year) for nothing else than polluting the environment and ironically overshadowing any attempt of a Cycle Scheme to lift itself off the ground, I've almost "maxed out" my miles for cycling in my first month… in two weeks! The solution this led me onto, was not to continue cycling (for unpaid miles), but instead to use the car for the rest of the month, which obviously defeats the whole cycle miles purpose. (I'm not actually going to do this, but I can see its an option some would strongly consider).
Therefore, some adjustments must be made to get the system widely accepted and working. Potentially, the solution with greatest results, would be to simply switch the rates, and give the cyclist quite a higher rate than the driver, but this might be seen as too extreme by some. However, a more feasible approach might at least equate them fairly.
This would not only be beneficial to our planet Earth in reducing our carbon footprint; to the roads, due to some reduction in the amount of traffic using them (and therefore saving tax money on highway maintenance); to the other road users (those who have to use the car because they really do live too far away, lorries, public transport, etc) who now have less traffic to worry about; to the users of the scheme, now leading a healthier lifestyle (its true, people should reach this conclusion by themselves, but perhaps giving them a little nudge is needed at this stage).
Reducing the amount given to the driver, will dissuade him/her from driving (as s/he will now have to be paying for the gas they use). Savings from this could then go to the cycle scheme, which don't necessarily have to be as high as the current driven mile, as there is no actual spending going into riding a bicycle (other than the initial cost and maintenance), but high enough to really provide that incentive.
For now, it is just a bonus, really, to those who cycled already, or would cycle regardless (which I'm sure isn't what the council wanted)… rather than an incentive for the non-cyclist to start cycling!
Furthermore, setting the example might encourage other sectors to follow suit, and if this works, on the long run we would be seeing a major positive change in road usage, reducing the number of private motorised contaminating vehicles in favour of cycling or the potentially faster and more efficient public transport.
The members opposing this change, would be people who live too far from their work. However, on the long run, people would hopefully come to terms with this, by moving closer to their work, or finding a job nearer to home. I can see how as a business, losing employees isn't a good idea, but these places would be taken by people living in the area, and when compared to the possibility of having literally everyone cycling or taking public transport, instead of driving (period, no discussion into long or short journeys), a "period of adaptation" won't be too taxing. For those that have to travel during work hours, it would be faster along the "unused" roads, and the public transport potential would also have increased.
Start cycling! =)
