Cycling schemes, investment funding and climate science

On Wednesday I went to an eerily quiet House of Commons for an event organised by the Cycle to Work Alliance. The event was clearly designed to send a message to the Treasury urging them not to cut the initiative.

To-date over 400,000 people have taken advantage of the scheme – including some employees at Global Action Plan. Through the scheme people save an average of 40 per cent of the total cost of the bike so it provides an excellent financial incentive to get cycling.

To get their message across, the organisers had lined up a series of the great and the good to bombard us with statistics about the benefits of cycling.

The arguments are compelling and include the facts that employees who cycle are ill less frequently, that cycling improves public health, cuts CO2 emissions and reduces traffic congestion.

I have been cycling into work for almost a year and love it. But taking the first step is daunting.

Much more still needs to be done on the way our roads are designed and about the attitude of all road users – including the ultra hardcore Lycra cycling brigade - before we achieve the Mayor's target of 20 per cent of all London journeys to be made by cycling. We are currently at two per cent.

As Olympian, Chris Boardman, succinctly summed it up at the event; to achieve this we need revolutionary culture change.

Boris bike

On Friday, I wandered around the corner from our office to be interviewed by BBC Worldwide about the launch of the Boris Bike scheme.

I think it is a brilliant initiative, although on Friday virtually the only people riding the bikes seemed to be journalists.

The bikes are neatly designed. They are easy to ride, very stable, incr edibly sturdy and look pretty indestructible. On the downside they are not that easy to get in and out of the docking stations, they have ludicrously slippery saddles and are not going to win any races.

There seems to be a lot of goodwill around the scheme and I will be intrigued to see how it is treated by the media. There will inevitably be vandalism, gripes about Barclays sponsorship and accidents.

When these happen, I hope that there won't be an over-reaction and that the scheme is allowed to settle in and flourish.

Investment funding

On Thursday, we met with two potential charitable investors. My mind is being considerably exercised at the moment around how Global Action Plan will be funded post March 2011.