Cycling to work in London

Cycling to work in London has become extremely popular in the last few years. Since 2000, cycle journeys on London’s major roads have increased by 107% with a 9% increase in the past year alone. Why the reason for this surge in popularity? One reason is undoubtedly the 7/7 tube bombings. In the latter half of 2005, the BBC reports that there was a sudden decline in tube journeys with an unexpected increase in cyclists on London’s roads. There are many reasons why these cyclists might have continued to travel to work in this way and have attracted friends, family and colleagues to do the same.

First of all, you can save lots of money by cycling to work. Money that you would otherwise be spending on Oyster cards and train tickets can be spent elsewhere. Also, there’s no expensive congestion charge associated with cycling in London.

For the environmentally conscious, cycling reduces carbon emissions, noise pollution, helps to protect green spaces and reduces traffic congestion.

It’s also an excellent way to get fit. Rather than having to wait until lunchtime or after work to pop to the gym, why not use up that hour that you’d be spending crammed into a hot, sweaty train, actually working up a sweat from burning calories?

Of course, there are some disadvantages to cycling to work as well. For a start, you have to deal with the good, old British weather. You can obviously buy appropriate clothing to protect you from the rain, but no-one’s denying that there will be some deeply unpleasant journeys in winter.

Depending on where you live, you might have some steep, unavoidable hills on your cycle route.

Also, not all workplaces have shower facilities. So, you might not be comfortable going into an early morning meeting with scruffy hair, wind-chapped face and reeking of deodorant to try and mask your work out.

Most importantly though, you really need to take into consideration the danger aspects of cycling in London. In 2008, sadly 8 people died and 84 were injured whilst cycling on London’s roads. Lorries are often involved in accidents as they simply can’t see cyclists in their blind spot. The Transport for London website has some essential advice for cycling safely.

So, after you’ve weighed up and pros and cons of cycling to work and have decided that it’s for you, you’ll need to get kitted out.

First up, is getting a bike. You might already have one, but if you don’t, consider a foldable bike, as you can carry it easily on the train if you are only planning to cycle for a section of your journey to work. Also foldable bikes take away the hassle of deciding where to store your bike. Having said this, Transport for London aim to have provided 66,000 new cycle parking spaces across London by 2012. They’ve already installed double-tier cycle racks on platform 10 at Liverpool Street with 189 spaces for bikes.

If you’re an employee paying tax through the PAYE system, you may be able to save money buying a bike through the government’s green transport initiative called CycleScheme which offers tax-free bikes. It’s not possible to state exactly how much you could save, as it varies depending on which tax bracket you’re in, but typical savings are between 30-50%.

Protecting your bike is very important, as this is London and thieves do steal bikes on a regular basis. You should definitely invest in some insurance and also a lock for your bike. Actually it’s recommended that you put two different locks on your bike, so that a potential thief has double the work to do and probably needs to use two different sets of tools to set your bike free, which is hopefully far too much hassle!

Selecting what clothing you’re going to wear for your cycle to work is of the utmost importance. Whether or not you’re going to attempt to wear your work clothes is up to you and probably depends on shower facilities at work (as described above), but at the very least you’ll need some padded cycling shorts that can be worn under trousers or a skirt and some reflective clothing to ensure that everyone can see you.

Once you’ve invested in all this gear though, you will probably find that the benefits outweight the negatives and you’ll wonder why you haven’t been doing this before!

For further information on cycling in London, visit Transport for London.