London Cycling Campaign | 25th August 2020
LCC have teamed up with
WestTrans to deliver a series of free cycle events for NHS and hospital workers across West London. The ‘London By Cycle’ pop up events aim to support NHS and hospital staff cycle to work, by offering: free bike repairs, cycle advice and cycle training.
The project follows on from the successful ‘Bikes 4 NHS’ project, where
LCC partner Active Cycling Projects, kindly donated 80 refurbished bikes to NHS staff to use and keep during the height of the lockdown. As part of coordinating the donation, LCC got in touch with various stakeholders across the NHS Trusts, and was prompted by the huge response we received from NHS and hospital workers to initiate this exciting events programme.
As we emerge from lockdown, and with public transport still operating at a reduced capacity, it’s vital we support and better understand how we can encourage key workers to complete their journeys by bike. With the NHS employing over 214,000 in London, it is a major employer and should be aiming to get 20% of its workforce commuting by walking and cycling. The benefits for the NHS are huge - as well having a healthy workforce, the more staff that enjoy cycling means that cycling is more likely to be encouraged as a health intervention for patients.
Events are initially scheduled to run through August to October 2020, with the first event taking place last week at St. Bernards Hospital, West London NHS Trust. We’ve currently got 5 more events scheduled at sites within Hillingdon NHS Trust, Imperial College Healthcare Trust and more in the West London NHS Trust. The events are a great opportunity to chat all things cycling with NHS staff and we hope our staff surveys will capture information on barriers we can overcome and ideas we can implement specific to this sector.
Alongside our existing
discounted membership offer for key workers within the NHS, LCC are looking to work directly with NHS Trusts across London to get more NHS staff cycling. As funding for cycling events has been reduced in London, we are looking to engage hospital and NHS trusts through our
Workplace Memberships and Strategic Partnerships. If you work for a NHS trust or hospital and are interested in learning more about our Workplace Membership offer and how we can support your staff into walking and cycling, please follow the link or email
cyclingprojects@lcc.org.uk.