Cycle to Work scheme gets us on our bikes

WE haven’t quite hit the heights of Beijing’s nine million bikes, but we are embracing cycling with gusto, if sales figures under the Cycle to Work scheme are anything to go by.

A report published by the Irish Bicycle Business Association (IBBA) shows we bought 90,000 bikes in the first two years of the government scheme generating an estimated €138.68 million in direct and indirect sales.

Additional spin-offs include:

- The opening of 50 new bicycle shops across the country since the scheme was introduced in 2009.

- The preservation or creation of an estimated 767 jobs as a result of the scheme.

- A doubling in membership of Cycling Ireland, the governing body of cycling, from 5,000 to 10,000 since 2008.

IBBA spokesman David Walsh said the report underlined that the scheme was succeeding in getting people to leave their cars behind and cycle to work.

Padraig Ryan, transport co-ordinator for Temple Street Children’s University Hospital, said they had seen a 450% increase in the number of staff cycling to work, coinciding with a 44% reduction in the number of staff driving, since the introduction of the scheme.

The report says there were significant spin-offs for domestic tourism and charitable fundraising (70% of charities use cycling events to raise funds with a 50% increase in the number of participants year on year), in addition to the environmental and health benefits.

Regular cyclists take on average one fewer sick day per year according to the London School of Economics. It is estimated the scheme has saved the economy €15.3 million a year in absenteeism.