Feb. 18, 2020
Tour de Force is asking central government, provinces and municipalities to give greater priority to encouraging bicycle use by employees. The reasons given by the government are as follows:
- Cycling makes people more mobile and is healthy: thirty minutes of cycling is thirty minutes of exercise;
- cycling saves on health care costs;
- cycling makes cities more attractive, greener, quieter, healthier and safer;
- Bicycling provides freedom and a greater habitat and prevents transportation poverty;
- cycling contributes to the climate and energy goals regarding the reduction of CO2 gas emissions;
- cycling keeps economic centers accessible;
- cycling contributes to social and economic interests.
Most employees have partly the same and partly different reasons for choosing to bike, such as:
- cycling saves on the cost of gasoline and parking fees;
- biking to work can replace the fitness club;
- in the inner city, biking is often faster than car or public transportation;
- cycling is healthy.
But in addition, many Dutch people also have reasons not to go by bike such as the bad weather, the children that need to be taken to school first and the amount of luggage that needs to be taken along. After all, most employees carry a hefty bag with a laptop and other necessary items with them.
Actually encouraging employees to bike to work requires more than just communicating the reasons given by the government. Examples include a good rain suit in the Christmas package and lockers at work for laptops. In addition, an allowance for the purchase of a bicycle or e-bike could be part of the fringe benefits.
