If you cycle occasionally for fun or fitness, then this post is to help you to take the next step and get happier, healthier and wealthier by commuting to work by bike. It will help you to identify the barriers to cycling to work and give you some basic, practical steps towards overcoming them. But let’s start by looking at the benefits.

Why cycle?

You’ll be happier. Cycling is proven to improve mental health, having a positive effect on wellbeing, self-confidence and resistance to stress. It also helps to reduce tiredness and difficulties sleeping.* People who have switched to commuting by bike consistently report an improved sense of happiness and wellbeing.

You’ll be healthier. Cycling is fantastic exercise. It helps you to lose weight and build muscle without putting too much strain on your joints. A major study at the University of Glasgow recently found that ‘commuters who cycled were associated with a 41% lower risk of premature death’ and ‘45% lower risk of developing cancer and a 46% lower risk of heart disease’.* Quite simply, riding to work could save your life.

You’ll be wealthier. Love to Ride participant (and 2018 Global Prize Winner!) Andy King saved £3,000 a year by switching to the bike for his commute. He also saves thirty minutes a day.

You can win awesome prizes. We’re going Dutch for Ride to Work Week, so you can win a Babboe cargo bike or a trip for two to the Netherlands just for riding all or part of the way to work from 25-31 March! We’re also giving away amazing Loffi gloves and lots of other goodies…

Know Your Route

Whether you currently drive, walk, or use public transport to get to work, the chances are the best route to take by bike won’t be the one you take now. There are fantastic online resources for sniffing out two-wheeled tricks to avoid traffic and get you to work as fresh and stress-free as possible, such as Cyclestreets (which also has an excellent app) and Google Maps. There’s no substitute, though, for first-hand knowledge and experience: talk to regular cycle commuters, ask them for tips on where to go and tricks to avoid the worst traffic black spots.

Once you’ve got a good idea of the best route to take, do as much of a recce as you can, preferably when there’s not too much traffic around. If you know the road layout ahead, it’s easier to ride confidently in heavy traffic or bad weather when you’re on your way to work.

Confidence

Even the most careful route planning sometimes can’t entirely avoid busy rush-hour traffic and for many people the greatest obstacle to commuting by bike is an understandable reluctance to mix it with buses, cars and lorries. Here are two straightforward steps to help boost your cycling confidence and equip you with the necessary skills to deal with busy sections of your commute:

Find out about expert training in your area. You wouldn’t drive a car to work before your first driving lesson and unless you’re a confident and experienced road user you shouldn’t cycle to work without some basic training either. Adult cycle training is offered for free or at heavily subsidised rates by most local authorities. You can book a session to ride to work with your instructor and talk over any difficult junctions or traffic black spots so you have specific guidance tailored to your own commute. We can’t recommend training from a qualified National Standards Instructor (NSI) highly enough – find your local provider here.

Team up with a colleague or a neighbour. If you know someone who works with or near you and cycles to work, ask if you can meet them and ride in together a few times. Even the busiest and most daunting commute will feel much more achievable if you can tuck in behind an experienced cyclist, follow their line and learn their tricks for dealing with busy junctions or confusing roundabouts. Most cycle commuters are enthusiastic about cycling and will be glad to help someone make the transition to commuting by bike.

Equipment

Unless your commute is a substantial distance or over tricky terrain, you don’t need to spend a fortune on a high-end bike and fancy clothing and accessories. However, if you are going to ride to work every day it is worth making sure you can commute comfortably and carry the necessary luggage. If you don’t have a bike or there’s only a rusting death-trap in the garden shed, then consider borrowing or hiring one for a week to see how you find it (schemes such as Cycle Boost in South Yorkshire offer free 1-month loans so you can try riding to work without having to buy a bike; see if there is a similar service in your area). If you live near a Brompton Dock or there’s a bike share scheme where you live you can try cycling to work a few times for less than £20.Increasingly bike shops are offering good, well-equipped bikes for short-term hire at reasonable prices. If you decide cycling to work is for you, look into Cyclescheme: if your employer is signed up you can make substantial savings on new bikes and equipment.

Increasingly, people are disocvering the benefits of e-bikes for commuting. They flatten the hills and mean you turn up feeling fresh, plus they make commuting by bike a piece of cake for anyone who feels they don’t have the fitness to start riding to work on a conventional bike straight away. E-bikes are getting better and cheaper as they become more widespread, so ask your local bike shop for advice.

Other than a bike, you don’t need to worry too much: the majority of people who cycle to work do so in their work clothes. If you want to ride to work whatever the weather or if you have a demanding route, water-proof panniers and/or a change of clothes at work might help: through trial and error you’ll quickly work out the routine and equipment that suit you best. The only ‘must’ is to make sure you have a good lock: the police recommend spending at least a tenth of the value of your bike on a lock.

Your Employer

Your workplace might already have secure bike storage, cycle showers and lockers: sometimes facilities for people who ride to work are tucked away and not very well advertised, so it’s worth asking around to see what’s available. If there aren’t any facilities for cycle commuters, persuade them that there should be. They might not be aware of the benefits of a two-wheeled workforce: research suggests that cycling to work can halve sick days and happier and healthier employees are more productive and highly motivated.** Plus encouraging cycling is a must for any organisation – and it should be every one – that cares about the environment and its green credentials. So if there are no facilities ask your employer why and persuade them that installing a shower and some secure bike storage will be worth their while. Oh, and tell them about the benefits of Love to Ride!

Enjoy!

If you follow these simple suggestions, overcoming the barriers you face to cycling to work won’t be a big deal. Once you’ve got hold of a bike, worked out your route and got expert advice you can take the plunge and cycle into work a few times. You’ll quickly start to enjoy it and feel the benefits and hopefully you’ll stick at it and in a year or two you’ll struggle to remember how – or why – you ever travelled to work any other way. Surely there’s no better way to get happier, healthier and wealthier than simply by changing your traveling routine: it’s as easy as riding a bike.

* https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/archiveofnews/2017/may/headline_522765_en.html

** https://www.sustrans.org.uk/blog/why-walking-and-cycling-are-good-business – if there aren’t facilities at your work, it’s a good idea to see if there’s a gym or leisure centre nearby where you can get a cheap membership just to use the shower and changing facilities

Already ride to work? Check out this great post by Cyclescheme: 10 Ways to Encourage People to Cycle to Work

Watch this short presentation about a global trend between ‘Cycling Frequency’ and Gender.

More about Love to Ride at partners.lovetoride.net

We’d love to talk with you about how we can work together on our shared mission of getting more people riding. Please do get in touch: together@lovetoride.net

Happy riding!

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Carvel Lonsdale is 54 and he’s cycled in the past but ‘been on holiday’ from his bikes for some years. He works for Lancashire’s Children and Families Well Being Service and his cycling goal for 2019 is to ride 2,019 miles. We’re sharing his story as a shining example of how sharing the road considerately can foster great relationships between road users. It is also a perfect way to launch our new partnership with Loffi, whose gloves (modelled by Carvel below) make positive interactions between people on bikes and other road users as easy as raising your hand…

As a new employee with Lancashire County Council’s Children and Families Wellbeing Service, it was time to lead by example – so cycling to work became my personal well-being project. I have to be honest, I was nervous about both the traffic and my ability to physically tackle the ride. This is the story of how I overcame these barriers – I hope it helps you to begin, or enhance, your ride to work.

To begin with I decided on the route. The choice was either back lanes or major roads. I chose the major roads to be safer. Riding at times when people were rushing to work on narrow twisting roads seemed more of a real problem than fast traffic with plenty of room to get past. The big roads were also flatter, 7.7 miles of rolling terrain. Major roads it was then!

Next decision: which bike? I am lucky – several to choose from! Road, Mountain or single speed?

I deliberated for some time. I wanted a bike that was simple and robust, with a predictable steady speed that wouldn’t be asking me to constantly think about how I was riding. The solution was the old steel, fixed-gear bike. On this bike I would only be able to go at the speed the gearing allowed and having chosen the main road route, it would be smooth enough for the fixie to be a practical solution.

Finally, when to set off to ensure a good experience? This took some planning to practice the ride and estimate recovery at the other end. I decided on a fixed time to set off on the fixed gear bike – a theme was developing!

With plenty of lights and reflective strips attached I began my cycle commute. My logic was simple. Car drivers are isolated from the world around them, so I wanted them to care about me on their commute to work as the rider they ‘always’ see. How do you connect with people? You make a massive effort to be nice.

Every single car that made the slightest effort to give me room on the road got a wave, not necessarily for them to see but for the driver behind who saw me waving at the car ‘making an effort’. It was a lot of waving! After a month, travelling at the same time every day the improvement in drivers’ awareness was incredible. How do I know? Massive clearance on overtakes; hazard warning light winks; not overtaking when there is slow moving traffic; cars I recognise stopping traffic to let me out and cheerful horn honking.

Some days it’s hard to keep waving, I’ve got it down to a kind of salute now, but not only is it keeping me safe I feel connected with ‘my’ car drivers. The sense of wellbeing for me is massive, I can literally see the impact of positive relationships.

What about lorries? I make a point of trying to remember the ones that go out of their way to keep me safe and ring up their companies to thank them – Hanson’s Cement, Ruttle and Covent Garden Soup Deliveries – AWESOME DRIVERS!

What to do about the close passers? Getting angry only makes it worse. Hopefully they will see my positive interactions with drivers who pass me considerately and realise their error.

Cycling to work, for wellbeing, is the art of fixing lots of stuff with one activity: physical health, green agenda, de-stressing and improving mental health. Who says I can’t multi task? Try it – I’m sure you can too.

Carvel’s story made us think of the wonderful Loffi gloves that several members of the Love to Ride team bought through their Kickstarter – these excellent cycling gloves are designed to foster friendly communication between people on bikes and other road users. We got Carvel a pair and he loved them so much that he made a fender flap to match! Join us for Ride to Work Week (you can register in one minute at lovetoride.net) and you could win a pair of Loffi’s smiling gloves or get a hefty discount – Spread the Glove!

Dan works at the University of Huddersfield and joined Love to Ride for Cycle September 2017. We’re encouraging all our members to set themselves a cycling goal for this year and Dan replied on Facebook that his is to save £1,000 by riding to work instead of driving. Here’s his cycling story:

What was the single most effective method you found to begin riding to work?

Sorry, I didn’t have a method. I tried it, hated it, stuck at it and became a convert!

Did anyone encourage you?

I had the encouragement of my wife and family. Sometimes I am tempted to drive and my wife gently reminds me that I have a bike in the shed! I also had friends that rode and they chatted to me about their love of riding. Their chats shifted my perspective from “it’s a way of getting to work” to “this is something that I could grow to like” and, actually, I have fallen in love with cycling.

What benefits have you experienced from riding to work?

I would count all of the following benefits equally because they all make a valuable contribution to my well-being in their own way. None are more important than the other, but all matter a lot!

Time – I only ride a 4-mile commute to work and then back again in the evening but even in that short distance the ride is around 10 minutes quicker in the morning than driving. Every morning I ride past queues of traffic at several junctions on one of the main routes into the town. It’s around 30 minutes quicker than the bus/walking to work.

Money – I estimate that between parking and fuel I would spend £6 a day on driving to work. Every day I ride to work that’s £6 to spend on bike gear! Winning! The truth of it though, is that my wife monitors my bike purchases, so it is a literal saving… Last year I rode to work enough to save £750.

Fitness – The increased fitness that comes from riding to work is a real benefit and allied to the other benefits I mentioned. My mental health is better when I am fitter, I don’t have to take time away from work and family to go to the gym and don’t have to pay for memberships. In addition to the commutes, I also ride for pleasure including non-competitive events and a yearly trip to Europe. In the lighter evenings I take the long way home (20-50 miles) incorporating training with the commute. I see some beautiful places that genuinely make me grateful to be out on the road.

Mental Health – The time on the bike gives me the opportunity to drop the stresses of the day. It’s subtle, imperceptible and not consciously worked at but somehow, along the way, anything that has made me tense or anxious softens and often melts away altogether.

How did you calculate your saving from riding your bike instead of driving?

The car park that I would use costs £4/day to use. I added in a guesstimate on fuel (diesel!) plus wear and tear of £2/day. If I was being absolutely honest that cost would actually increase because I eat a bigger lunch when I drive so, on a driving day, I spend more on food.

So, circa 125 days commuting last year x £6/day on fuel and wear and tear = £750

How many days do you have to ride to save £1,000 in 2019 and what’s your plan for achieving this goal?

167 – those 125(ish) days last year were all achieved between May and December. Simply start earlier in the year (I have started already, of course). The winter equipment (bike and clothing) has been the real difference this year.

What advice would you give to someone considering riding to work?

The right equipment. If you’re working to a budget, definitely budget for good waterproofs, warm clothing (especially gloves and overshoes) and (it seems obvious) mudguards for the bike. These elements have made the single biggest contribution to increasing my ride commuting this year. Until I got winter kit I would stop riding in early winter. With the right kit, I have felt no need to stop (see pictures of Dan modelling his Proviz gear below!).

And Cycle To Work Schemes! This was the single biggest factor in starting commuting by bike. The value offered by these schemes is outstanding and, for me, has paid for itself very quickly.

We’re very grateful to Dan for sharing his story – if you’re inspired to start riding to work, join us at lovetoride.net or if you have an inspiring cycling story please send it to stories@lovetoride.org