HEALTH & SAFETY ON YER BIKE SON! Cycling in Britain is becoming increasingly popular, with many people following


in the tracks of Wiggins and Froome. What’s more we are cycling to work. So, FM PR consultant and cycling enthusiast Andrew Brown asks: is FM keeping pace with the demand?


London’s cycling superhighway opened recently. In mid-May, a film made by a lobby group, of riders crossing Blackfriars Bridge claimed 70 people were captured in 20 seconds using just 4m of space. If that’s right, then that’s a capacity of 12,600 people per hour. So where are all these bikes going to go once commuters arrive at their destination?


It is a serious trend. It also has implications for employee engagement, corporate responsibility and attracting and retaining the right people. Facilities managers and workplace designers are under pressure to cope with this hike in demand for bike storage and end of route facilities.


Four years ago, Neil Webster put together a report for the British Council of Offices: cycling in the modern workplace. He found over 50% of respondents surveyed suggested that the provision of good cycling facilities would influence their choice of employer. But is this message getting through to employers? His BCO sponsored research showed that many workplaces still lacked the necessary cycle storage, lockers and showers that are needed to support employees who wish to cycle.


In 2012 there were exceptions: PWC, Deloitte and Lend Lease in


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London provided good amenities, for example. This was not the norm then and isn’t now. Smaller enterprises still struggle because they lease rather than own their buildings, are in multi-occupied offices, or their properties were not designed with the current boom in cycling in mind.


‘Cycling revolution London’, a study by Transport for London (TfL) in 2010, showed that cycling activity in the city doubled between 2000 and 2010. An LSE report, ‘The British cycling economy’ (supported by Sky and British Cycling), indicated that in 2010, 3.7 million bikes were sold in the UK, a 28% increase over 2009.


Halfords, who are responsible for one in three bikes sold in the UK, recorded sales of its bicycles were up 11% in the year to 27th March 2015. According to TfL the total number of cycling journeys in London rose by 5% to 610,000 a day in 2015. That’s 23 million a year.


Guidance and targets range from


the top of the range ambitious Living Building Challenge (that requires secure storage for ‘human powered vehicles’ i.e. bicycles and shower and changing facilities that are accessible by all building occupants); to the make it up as you go along policy via enlightened (and prescriptive) ideas outlined by the international Well Build


Standard that focuses on wellbeing, fitness, bicycle storage and post commute and workout facilities.


Possibly the example for FMs to follow is set by plans at 22 Bishopsgate. The developer, led by Sir Stuart Lipton, has hired the company PFL Spaces, Australian specialist in end-of-route facilities, to make sure 22 Bishopsgate backs its commitment to be big on bikes.


PFL Spaces will create bespoke space aiming to provide around 1,500 secure bike parking spaces (the most in the City of London), bike hire for tenants, cycle safety training, spin classes and an in- house bike shop and workshop. It will meet the needs of the lycra fanatic to the commuter with a basket. It will have showers, lockers and changing facilities. It meets the needs of the generation X and Y choosing to ride to work and who will use it as a factor in choosing where and when to work.


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