Get off your bikes

spring91
spring91 Posts: 69
edited July 2007 in Campaign
From The Times
July 6, 2007
Green transport specialist tells its workers to ‘get off your bikes’

One of Britain’s biggest engineering companies has banned staff from travelling on bicycles or motorbikes after declaring them too dangerous.

Jacobs Babtie advises local authorities on sustainable transport projects – including how to get more people to switch from four wheels to two.

It has told staff at its 36 offices across Britain that they must drive or use public transport. They can use bicycles only if they are working away from roads, such as on canal towpaths.

Full story http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 034087.ece

Comments

  • on the road
    on the road Posts: 5,631
    Isn't riding on a canal towpath just as dangerous, they might fall in :lol:
  • Sheddy
    Sheddy Posts: 942
    I think the Manager responsible should be shown the door
    Too much of anything is too much for me
  • Cyclingphil
    Cyclingphil Posts: 33
    Surely employees should not be allowed to drive into work as they are making the roads dangerous for cyclists
  • Greenbank
    Greenbank Posts: 731
    They haven't banned cycling for commuting. They can't do that.

    They've banned it for inter-office travel during the work day.

    Still insanely dumb, but nowhere near as dumb as saying "you can't cycle to or from work".
    --
    If I had a baby elephant signature, I\'d use that.
  • Sheddy
    Sheddy Posts: 942
    I think the same story has just made the BBC TV News - London region. The journos took the oportunity to have a pop at the TFL cycling campaign
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6277086.stm
    Too much of anything is too much for me
  • palinurus
    palinurus Posts: 836
    Banning interoffice travel by bike is just as dumb as banning staff from commuting to work by bike.
  • Crapaud
    Crapaud Posts: 2,483
    I loved this comment. :D
    One of the measures used for assessing risks of different activities is the Fatality Accident Rate (FAR), defined as the number of deaths per 100 million hours of exposure to an activity. Assuming an average car speed of 45kph, and an average cycle speed of 8kph the FAR of cycling and driving are 30 and 13 respectively, so cycling is considered to be riskier than driving.However, the 'tolerable' risk of being killed while at work (assumed to be 1:1000/yr) has a FAR of 50. Maybe Jacobs shoudl tell its employees to stop working!
    A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject - Churchill
  • eternal_headwind
    eternal_headwind Posts: 222
    I would be tempted to cycle to work then follow orders for inter office travel very strictly. They do mention public transport as being acceptable.

    If they want to pay employees to wait at bus stops all day...
  • spen666
    spen666 Posts: 17,709
    Crapaud wrote:
    I loved this comment. :D
    ... Assuming an average car speed of 45kph, and an average cycle speed of 8kph .]
    Cycle speed average of 8kph? So around 5mph?

    no wonder the figures are so skwered?


    Also average car spped of 45mph - say 27 mph?

    not in London- try average spped of bike as being at least double if not nearer treble that quoted and the car speed of at most 1/2 that quoted

    Now re work those figures - and guess what cycling is far safer
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  • bof
    bof Posts: 372
    Apparently being told that their TFL contracts would be reviewed if they persisted with the policy was enough for them to reassess the risk.

    Funnily enough cycling is now OK.
    The artist formally known as boring old fart

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