Thomas shares his thoughts and experience on how it is entirely possible to get more people enjoying cycling.
If there is anyone who you work with who doesn’t think that…
investing in cycling infrastructure & behaviour change programmes
=
more people cycling
…then send them a link to this short 5 minute video.
We’ve recently set ourselves a target of getting 1 million new people to take up riding.
Doing the maths
We’ve estimated that if we spread Love to Ride to 26 Countries and get similar results to those which we’ve achieved in the England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Australia, then we can get 2 million new people riding over 10 years. This analysis has given us the confidence that we can achieve our 1 million new riders target.
Getting to scale
We’ve spent the last 8 years and more than £3,000,000 developing, trialling and enhancing our (now rather sophisticated) approach to influencing people’s behaviour and encouraging more people to enjoy cycling. We’ve nailed it – now it’s time to scale it!
To achieve this we will work in thousands of towns and cities around the world, partnering with with councils, local advocacy groups and millions of existing riders. We’ve got a plan and we’ll keep you posted with developments.
How many people can we get cycling in your city?
Typically a Workplace Cycle Challenge involves between 600 to 3,000 people (largely dependant on population size). On average, 30% of participation is from non-cyclists and 82% of non-cyclists continue riding after the Challenge (54% take up riding weekly!). So about 25% of participants in a Challenge will become new riders in your city each year!
You can read more about the typical behaviour change outcomes that we achieve here.
With the latest round of 44 LSTF(2) awards now confirmed across England, we take a look at last year’s LSTF-funded programme outcomes to see how our mix of technology, creativity, and good old human interaction is working better than ever at getting more people enjoying cycling.
In 2013, Challenge for Change fully rolled out the new Love to Ride platform, delivering Cycle Challenge programmes in towns and cities across Britain. As far apart in the UK as Jersey, York, Swansea and Belfast, Love to Ride criss-crossed the country on a mission to get as many people as possible in the saddle and enjoying cycling.
Our 2013 LSTF programme results include:
These numbers show that Love to Ride’s Cycle Challenges in 2013 got a lot of pedals turning, but in order to measure their success in changing behaviour, it is necessary to look at the data in more detail.
Data Collection Method
Participants complete a short but crucial baseline survey when they registered on Love to Ride. By measuring this data against the results of follow-up surveys conducted at key intervals after each Challenge, we can analyse how each Challenge led to positive changes in behaviour, encouraging people to take up cycling as both a leisure activity and for transport.
The analysis shows: more people cycling, more often
Here’s what the Challenge programmes achieved in 2013:
Love to Ride’s Cycle Challenges also proved effective in encouraging participants to cycle to work.
An average of 8% of those who tend to drive to work said that three months after their Challenge, they cycled to work more than they commuted by car: in some locations this figure was as high as 17%.
Therefore, Love to Ride’s Challenges were not only successful in getting people on to bicycles, they were effective in getting people out of cars.
We work with local authorities across the UK and create programmes to match every budget. To discuss how Love to Ride can work in your area, please call Sam on +44 (0)7734 833451, or drop an email to sam@lovetoride.net.
Earlier this year we publicly released our new Behaviour Change framework, the new Love to Ride brand and our new lovetoride.org partner-facing site.
We are now proud to announce that our new Love to Ride 2.0 web platform and Smartphone app 2.0.1 are now available to over 250 towns and cities across the UK and overseas.
Drawing on 8+ years of Workplace Cycle Challenge data, behaviour change theory, and the latest thinking in using technology to influence behaviour, we’ve further enhanced our web platform and app.
The new site design and functionality are clean, crisp and easy to navigate. Early feedback from our partners and participants has been very positive. The site looks great!
Here are a few features that are part of Love to Ride 2.0.
Targeted announcements
A key element of our behaviour change framework is ensuring that relevant information is delivered to the right audience – this makes our approach much more effective than a one size fits all communication from another website.
Announcements are now set to target different types groups of people, e.g.
Smartphone app
Having launched our first version last year with much success, we are now onto v2.0.1, which has our new design and a few new functions and improvements. Download it here.
Going Social
We’ve added new social features to the site including commenting on photos, sharing content on other social media and giving ‘high fives’ (similar to the ‘Like’ button on Facebook) which will allow you to give other people a high five for various activity on the site (e.g. a friend of yours logs a 12 mile ride to work and you give them a high five for their efforts!)
We’re always working to improve the Love to Ride web platform to make sure it’s the best online tool out there for encouraging more people to taking up riding. We’ve exciting new developments planned for the next phase and to take us through into 2015 and beyond.
If you’ve got any suggestions or ideas, we’d love to hear them, so do get in touch.