Who else has taken part?
See what law firm Bristows, Tower Hamlets College and the White Chapel Gallery took advantage of through the Cycle Superhighways Workplace Scheme
Crisis UK
Crisis UK are the national homeless charity for single people. They are dedicated to ending homelessness by delivering life-changing service and campaigning for change.
Crisis UK headquarters, based in Commercial Street in East London, were one of the first businesses in London to sign up to the Barclays Cycle Superhighway Workplace Offering. As part of the scheme they offer regular cycle maintenance sessions to staff as well as cycle training to increase the confidence of staff travelling to work using the new Cycle Superhighways. They also installed 10 cycle parking spaces in the form of vertical bike hangers. As a result, Crisis UK has developed a true cycling ethos introducing a Cycle to Work Scheme, a cycling group and developing a number of cycling based events that staff can benefit from. As a result, they increased the number of cyclists in their organisation from just one to twenty-four in the space of a year.
Barnaby Green, Learning Advisor at Crisis said ‘the scheme was really easy to follow and we have and are still achieving fantastic benefits for our staff enabling more and more employees to cycle to work. I encourage businesses in the area to sign up to the scheme.’ In the year they took part in the scheme, Crisis UK went from having 1 to 25 cyclists in the organisation.
Family Mosaic Housing
Family Mosaic Housing provide good quality, affordable homes and housing services to over 45,000 people across London and Essex. They signed up to the scheme as part of their workplace travel plan, aiming to boost the cycle facilities and services offered on site.
The site is based on Queen Elizabeth Street in Southwark, South East London - located close to Barclays Cycle Superhighway route 7. They have just over 300 staff based on site. Using their funding credits, they installed a new cycle compound on site which will hold 20 staff bicycles securely. In addition they offered cycling maintenance and training sessions for staff.
Sarah Fiddimore, the Head of Facilities, who coordinated the Cycle Superhighway Offering for the site along with the travel plan, said ‘the scheme is providing us with added benefits for our travel plan and will boost the number of cyclists at the office. We are really looking forward to opening the new cycling compound and staff are really excited by the new facilities and services on offer at the site’. In the year they took part in the scheme, the organisation went from having 6 to 27 people commuting by cycle.
London Wildlife Trust
London Wildlife Trust is a charitable organisation dedicated to protecting wildlife and wild spaces in the Capital. As the Trust has a strategic objective of embedding sustainability as part of their day to day work, the London Wildlife Trust was interested in using bicycles as much as possible for commuter and business travel.
The Trust exchanged their allocated £2,300 worth of funding credits for 5 “toast rack” style cycle parking racks with the capacity for 30 bikes worth of storage. They also used credits on a range of cycle training sessions from intermediate level right through to advanced in order to improve the cycling confidence and safety of 10 staff members. With their remaining credits they held a safety check session on site. During the session staff were able to bring their bicycles into work to be checked and serviced by a qualified mechanic.
Kate Symonds coordinated the scheme for her organisation and was one of the employees who undertook cycle training. Kate opted for Level 3 Advanced training. Being a regular cyclist, she wasn’t sure there was much she would learn from the training, but she discovered how to position herself correctly in the road and be visible to drivers. By the end of the lesson, she was able to negotiate the infamous Elephant & Castle roundabout!
Carlo Laurenzi, Chief Executive of the London Wildlife Trust, said “the cycle parking and training we have received has greatly increased the popularity of cycling in the organisation. Not only are we seeing more people cycling to work in the morning, but we are also actively encouraging cycling for business trips as a result.”
The Trust is now looking at implementing a Cycle to Work scheme and using the new Cycle Hire bikes alongside a cycling allowance for business trips. In the year they took part in the scheme, The London Wildlife Trust went from having 10 cyclists to 15.