Get Cycling - News Blog

Sheffield to be the first UK City given a ‘BikeBoost’
How do you get 800 people to take up cycling to work for the first time, in one of the UK’s hilliest cities? That’s the task taken on by Get Cycling, a York based Community Interest Company.
BikeBoost is an innovative two-year programme offering bike loans and a full support programme to 800 Sheffield cyclists, over two years: working in partnership with Sheffield City Council, Sheffield’s major employers, Sheffield’s cycling and transport organisations, and local bike shops.
Jim McGurn, MD of Get Cycling, says: “We chose Sheffield ahead of all other cities thanks to the strong commitment and support shown by the City Council, Sheffield’s voluntary cycling organisations and by Sheffield’s cycle training organisation, Pedal Ready”.
Cllr Ian Auckland, Sheffield City Councils Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development and Transport, states: “We are committed to encouraging more people to choose the healthy option of cycling to work whenever possible. It not only helps with their personal fitness, but a healthy workforce means less sick leave and it’s great for the environment too! I hope that many businesses around the city will get behind this scheme and encourage their employees to get ‘on their bikes’!”.
BikeBoost officers, based in Sheffield, will assess participants’ needs and skills with a view to the free loan of commuter cycles and accessories, with the possibility of power-assist bikes for the less fit, and folding bikes for mixed-mode journeys. There are also specialised cycles available for participants with disabilities.
The bike loans are based on a Cycle 50% Challenge. In exchange for the chance to try out cycling for free, participants undertake to cycle to work for at least 50% of the days in the challenge period of three to four weeks. Get Cycling have been operating these Cycle 50% Challenges for six years, in various parts of the UK.
All participants are entitled to two hours of free cycle training provided by Pedal Ready, and those whom live and work in Sheffield are entitled to a further two hours. Training will include a mix of one-to-one and group activities.
Many participants will be able to purchase their cycles from Sheffield’s bike dealers at a discount of 40% or so, where employers are signed up to a government-sponsored salary sacrifice scheme.
A customised cycle-to-work website supports the scheme, allowing individuals to compete against one another and different departments within the company to compete. It also has the ability for companies to compete against one another showing units of CO2s saved as part of an overall corporate social responsibility strategy.
As well as giving participants immediate updates on their progress such as kilometres pedalled, calories burned and CO2s saved, the website will act as an online blog with social networking facilities.
What about the hills? “Yes, the hills can’t be ironed out”, says Jim McGurn, “but you only have to look at photos from the 1950s of hundreds of people cycling to work in Sheffield: and our aluminium-frame bikes are half the weight, with seven times more gears!”
The programme is funded by the Bike Hub New Ideas Fund, Get Cycling and Sheffield City Council. It is hoped that BikeBoost will, once successful, be rolled out across South Yorkshire and beyond.