This year’s Cycle to Work Day, organised by Bath’s Cyclescheme.co.uk, took place last week, aiming to encourage everyone to take to two wheels and cycle to work for just one day.
The number of pledging riders and miles ridden was nearly doubled, and the number of employers participating more than doubled from last year’s Cycle to Work Day.
- 32,763 riders in 2015 compared to 17,472 riders in 2014;
- 489,674 miles in 2015 compared to 261,315 miles in 2014;
- 872 employers in 2015 compared to 394 employers in 2014.
All across the UK, hundreds of employers representing 1,043,965 staff joined in a day devoted to celebrating utility cycling and boosting health and wellbeing in the UK.
Employers who took part include Tesco, Halls of Scotland, Aberystwyth University, The Landmark Practice, Good Energy, Danco plc, Retail Assist, Bike & Go, Cambourne Business Park, Cornish Mutual, and Councils such as Hartlepool Borough and Bath and North-East Somerset.
Activities taking place on Cycle to Work Day range from TfL giving free access to Santander Cycles in London, Britain’s Biggest Bike Breakfast – offering colleagues a coffee and croissant, or a juice and fruit, after cycling to work – to arranging guided rides, Dr. Bike sessions – trained mechanics or enthusiastic cyclists who perform ‘health checks’ on bikes – to competitions for staff to win cycling prizes.
Venues for activities included a free bike breakfast and servicing at one of London’s famous markets, Spitalfields in East London, to a bike-in cinema at Northern Monk Brew Co. in Leeds and a free bike breakfast at The Tiny Tea Room in Rodley, along the picturesque Leeds to Liverpool canal.
Social media highlights on Cycle to Work Day include trending on Twitter for 8 hours, with 24,697 tweets with a reach of over 45 million, 1,000 stories shared on Facebook, and the organisers receiving over 5,000 photos.
Launched by Cyclescheme.co.uk, the UK’s leading cycle to work provider, the campaign aim is to see a million people get on their bikes to work by 2021 and is supported by British Cycling, Santander Cycles, Sustrans, the Bicycle Association, Act TravelWise, CTC and the London Cycling Campaign.
To find out more about Cyclescheme, visit: www.cyclescheme.co.uk.
