Cycling
Enable staff to try out a bike
Employees might be reluctant to buy a bike outright if they’re not convinced that they’ll use it a lot. This is especially true of e-bikes, which have a higher price tag and which people are less likely to have used before.
Having even just a bike or two available at your workplace that employees can borrow for a period of time can alleviate these worries. This enables employees to try out cycling as part of their commute without having to commit to buying a bike first. E-bikes are especially popular in these trials, since they make cycling feel more doable to staff who are worried about their fitness level or getting sweaty on their commute.
Want to give this a try without any capital outlay? Try leasing a bike month-to-month. With Dash’s e-bike subscription, your organisation can lease an e-bike for as little as £29 per month. Subscriptions also include maintenance, theft insurance, and a helmet and lock. So employees don’t need to buy a bunch of extras in order to try an e-bike. Brompton Bikes also offers a subscription option for leasing folding bikes.
Example
Cheney School hires a folding e-bike and a non-folding e-bike from Dash, and lets staff members borrow either bike for two weeks for free. Since Dash provides a lock and helmet, staff don’t have to pay anything to try it out. Of the ten people who tried the bikes so far, seven have gone on to buy their own e-bikes.
Make it more affordable to buy a cycle
Participate in the Cycle to Work scheme
Signing up to the national Cycle to Work scheme costs your organisation nothing, and can save you up to 15.05% in National Insurance contributions for every employee who takes part in the scheme.
Cycle to Work allows your employees to lease a bicycle and pay for it with a monthly salary deduction, as long as they pay tax on a PAYE (Pay As You Earn) basis and the salary sacrifice deductions would not take their salary below minimum wage. This helps make cycling more affordable and also saves employees money on their contributions to income tax and national insurance.
See the Department of Transport’s guidance for employers on the scheme for more details. The main providers are Cyclescheme, Halford’s Cycle2Work, Vivup, Bike2Work, Green Commute Initiative, and Cycle Solutions. Each one offers slightly different versions of the scheme, so you’ll want to see which is the best fit for your organisation.
Supplement Cycle to Work with Dash
A traditional Cycle to Work scheme doesn’t let your staff try a bike. They’re generally committed to leasing it for a full year. If you sign on with Dash, your employees can lease an e-bike for as little as £29 per month, and have the option to lease month-to-month. Dash’s bike subscriptions also include maintenance, theft insurance, and a helmet and lock. So employees don’t need to make a big financial commitment, or buy a bunch of extras in order to try an e-bike.
Dash doesn’t require any upfront payments from companies that participate, and generally gets 4-5x more uptake than traditional Cycle to Work schemes.
Offer discounts or loans for cycles and equipment
Work with local bike shops to offer discounts for buying or renting new bikes, used bikes, or bike equipment. You can also offer loans for buying bikes; and allow people to charge expenses for cycling mileage, just as they would charge expenses for car mileage.
Examples
Cycle to Work is one of the most commonly offered travel benefits, with many of Oxford’s largest employers already offering it, including Activate Learning, Landsec, Low Carbon Hub, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford Bus Company, Oxford City Council, Oxford Health, Oxford University Hospitals, Oxfordshire County Council, River Learning Trust, Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks, and University of Oxford.
Milton Park’s Sustainability and Community Manager offers to help the over 250 companies in the park sign up for Cycle to Work schemes.
Oxford Brookes University offers a discount on new bikes from Walton Street Cycles and a discount on bike hires from Bainton Bikes, as well as discounts on bike locks and lights. They also allow staff to apply for interest-free loans of up to £2000 for a bike, which are paid back through salary deductions, and allow staff to charge expenses for bike travel at 20p per mile.
University of Oxford offers discounts at seven local bike shops. They also allow staff to apply for interest-free loans of up to £2000 for a bike from these shops, which are paid back through salary deductions.
Create community
Starting a cycle user group at your workplace is a good way to create a sense of community among cycle commuters and give them a voice in the organisation. This can also enable people to connect about buddying up for rides and share knowledge about the best routes for cycling to work. This community initiative can be linked up with events, such as lunchtime rides or workplace challenges, and incentives for bike commuters, such as a free breakfast or drawing.
Examples
Oxford Brookes University has a cycling forum and the University of Oxford has a bike user group.
The first Wednesday of the month, between March to November, is ‘bike 2 work’ day across Milton Park’s entire site. They give a free breakfast to those who cycle in on those days.
Enable employees to cycle safely
You can encourage safer cycling by offering things like cycle training, cycle repairs, and discounts on safety gear like helmets or lights. These may also encourage people who haven’t cycled in a while to get back on a bike.
You can offer cycle training sessions or accompanied rides at your workplace to help people build confidence and identify routes they’re comfortable using. Two possible partners in Oxford are the Broken Spoke Bike Co-op and JoyRiders Oxford. Broken Spoke offers Bikeability accredited cycle training at all levels for adults and children. Joy Riders organises free, community-based cycle training from beginner level to 1:1 route-finding and buddying for everyday journeys, as well as led group rides from several starting points around the city.
You can also host cycle repair days at your workplace (sometimes called “Dr Bike” sessions), or offer discounted repairs at local bike shops. Walton Street Cycles, Oxford Cycle Support, and Oxford Mobile Cycle Repairs are all in the Oxford area and will come to your workplace to do cycle repairs.
Examples
University of Oxford offers up to 6 hours of free cycle training at Broken Spoke, along with discounted helmets, lights, and bike locks. It has also partnered with Walton Street Cycles and Oxford Mobile Cycle Repairs to offer bike repairs on campus. For staff who commute by bike, labour is free for these sessions, so they only have to pay for parts.
Oxford Brookes University and Milton Park also offer mobile cycle repairs through Walton Street Cycles with no labour costs.
Keep a pool of bikes on site to hire
Maintain a pool of bikes that employees can use at lunchtime or for work trips, thus cutting down on the need for having their cars on site. E-bikes are especially popular as pool bikes, since they make cycling more appealing to staff who are worried about getting sweaty on their way to a meeting, or want to make their lunch run quicker.
Some companies in Oxford that offer pool bikes are Bainton Bikes, which offers traditional or electric pool bikes, Brompton Bikes, which offers folding bikes, and Electric Bike Sales, which offers e-bikes.
E-bikes that are hired or purchased from a good bike shop, or a reputable supplier based in the UK, will have CE and/or UKCA markings, and will have undergone a series of important safety tests that make fire risk very low.
While there has been some media attention about the risks of fire caused by e-bikes, e-bike fires are no more likely than car fires, and the fires that have occurred have overwhelmingly been from regular bikes that were converted into e-bikes at home using kits bought cheaply online from disreputable sources.
Example
Milton Park offers 18 bikes and 12 e-bikes for hire throughout the site, provided by Walton Street Cycles and incorporating the Donkey Republic software for the rental app. The bikes are grouped in geo-fenced hubs which can be seen on the app. Staff with a Milton Park company email address can sign up and use them for free. The e-bikes are used three times as often as the other bikes in the scheme that aren’t electric.
Build cycle infrastructure
People will be discouraged from cycling to work if there is no secure place to store their bikes once they get there. Offering secure cycle parking that is conveniently located, and ideally sheltered, can go a long way. You can also offer facilities for changing, showering, and storing cycling gear.
If you’re a school, the Cyclehoop Education Fund offers schools across the UK financial assistance and expert guidance to install secure cycle parking facilities. They generally accept applications in the fall.
If employees are storing e-bikes on site, it is important to remember that e-bike batteries are made from lithium ion, which is exactly the same as batteries in laptops, smartphones and a host of everyday items which we often leave plugged in overnight and unattended in millions of offices and homes across the UK. E-bikes that are bought from a good bike shop, or a reputable supplier based in the UK, will have CE and/or UKCA markings, and will have undergone a series of important safety tests that make fire risk very low. Following the Government’s safe storage guidelines makes this risk even lower.
While there has been some media attention about the risks of fire caused by e-bikes, e-bike fires are no more likely than car fires, and the fires that have occurred have overwhelmingly been from regular bikes that were converted into e-bikes at home using kits bought cheaply online from disreputable sources.
Examples
Oxford University Hospitals and the Lucy Group advertise bike parking next to their information about car parking on their employee benefits pages.
Oxford Brookes University offers both cycle parking and shower facilities for active commuters.
Improve cycle routes
Work with local authorities where possible to improve the main cycling routes to your workplace. Joining forces with other nearby businesses might be helpful here if your workplace doesn’t have the pull to pressure local authorities on your own.
You can also share information about quiet cycle routes to your workplace. For example, this online cycling map shows no or low-traffic cycling routes in Oxford.
Example
Oxford Brookes University advertises cycle routes to campus, as well as general routes around Oxford.
In 2020, Milton Park worked with OCC to open a new bike/footpath running north-south across the length of the park, joining up with routes from Abingdon and Oxford.
Updated September 2024