Commission pushes staff towards the bicycle track

Date: 31/07/1997

By Rory Watson

CYCLING fever may be on the wane a little around Europe, now that the Tour de France is over for another year, but the European Commission wants to encourage its officials to back pedal power.

As part of a wider policy to promote ecologically and environmentally sound practices in its internal administrative policies, the institution is examining ways of encouraging staff to leave their cars in the garage and cycle to work.

Over the next two and half years, the Commission has set itself the target of a minimum 50&percent; increase in the use of sustainable transport - bicycles, trams and trains - by its personnel.

Other pilot projects approved this month will focus on different incentives to promote cycling and discourage the use of Commission car parks.

The Commission will also be in contact with the local Belgian authorities in a bid to encourage greater usage of cycle tracks and make the city more user-friendly for those who like to travel around on two wheels without risking life and limb.

The three-year programme put together by the Environment and Personnel Commissioners Ritt Bjerregaard and Erkki Liikanen also aims to introduce similar ecological considerations into the institution's building and office policies.

“I was in California a few years ago and they are very advanced. If you used a bicycle or electric car you got extra money on your salary. It was an interesting idea and they achieved a lot that way,” explained Bjerregaard.

The Commission's attempts to promote pedal power are being supported by the European Cyclists' Federation (ECF), which is actively lobbying governments through a “cycling to work” campaign.

“We are in favour of cycling to work because it is of benefit to everybody. In some countries, governments have encouraged companies to establish company transport plans which provide for a greater role for the bicycle among their commuting employees. Company bicycles have become a booming business generating completely new services around the bicycle, stimulating the industry and creating jobs,” said ECF vice-president Burckhard Doempke.

Supporters of the switch to bicycles maintain they offer benefits to companies by avoiding investment on expensive car parking space and claim that the exercise leads to better health and less absenteeism among employees.

“In a Norwegian industrial company employing 600 people, financial incentives encouraged 200 of them to go to work by bicycle. The company saved about 200,000 ecu in illness-related expenditure per annum, without counting the savings to the public health system,” explained Doempke.