If You Were Paid to Ride to Work – Would You?

This morning the traffic network came to a halt with a serious accident on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We asked our ITC Facebook Fans how much this impacted their morning commute. One Facebook Fan told us it did not impact him at all as he rides to work. This was in complete contrast to the comments made by bus and car commuters. The wait was up to an hour for some people.

It was interesting to receive the comment from the cyclist. We recently read an article on how Milan wants to pay its citizens to cycle to work. Last year the smog levels in Milan were so bad, they temporarily banned cars from the CBD and offered discounted tickets on Public Transport. Now Milan wants to get their workers out of cars by paying commuters to ride to work.

Milan is not the first city to offer incentives to commuters. France has also trialed a scheme to incentivize cycling to work. It was not a huge success. The French ministry responsible for the trial reported that 419 people agreed to ride to work. That’s up from 200 cyclists at the start of the trail, but it was only the tip of the iceberg. There were 8,200 employees eligible to participate.

Recently new rules were introduced for cyclists. Cylists must now carry ID and the penalties for breaching road rules have increased. Motorists must now stay a 1 metre away from a cyclist.

So would you be prepared to give up the car and ride to work?  What would put you off riding to work?  Have the new cycling rules put you off riding to work? We would love to hear your comments.

If you want to find out more about cycling in Lane Cove you can contact:

Bicycle North – they have a strong presence in the northern suburbs and are continually organising interesting bike rides for all grades of cyclists.

Lane Covelo is a cycling club located within Lane Cove and is affiliated with Cycling NSW.

If you want to find out about cycling routes you can visit the Cycleway Finder.

Cycleway Finder Roads and Maritime Services

If you would like to buy a bike (and you can also buy electric bikes) then check out the following bike stores in Lane Cove

Renegade Cycles

Renegade Cycles is locally owned and operated and been in Lane Cove since 1993. They are located on Burns Bay Road near Agora IGA Express.

josh blake renegade cycles lane cove

Renegade Cycles Contact Details

Address:  161 Burns Bay Road  Lane Cove, New South Wales, Australia
Phone:  (02) 9427 1055
Website:  http://www.renegadecycles.com.au/
Facebook: Renegade Cycle
Twitter:   @Renegade_Cycles
Email   [email protected]