Why get involved?
About this page
By encouraging the workforce to participate in Ride to Work Day you are helping to increase the health of your employees, while demonstrating environmental and community awareness.
Live a healthier life
Organisations who encourage, or have, employees who ride to work often experience a decreased absenteeism, increased productivity, a healthier happier workforce, decreased costs and pressure on parking and a reduction in gas emissions.
The 2005 report “The Health of Australia’s workforce” found that healthy workers are almost three times as effective at work than unhealthy workers:
Effective hours worked per month (out of 160)
- Healthy Workers – 143 hrs
- Unhealthy Workers – 49 hrs *1
The 2010 WA Wellness Report, produced by HBF revealed the following facts about the WA population:
- 10% of the State’s population is completely inactive
- 20% get less than the recommended thirty minutes of exercise per day
- 55% of the State's population is overweight or obese
- 35% said their daily stress levels were quite high or very high
How can riding to work help?
- Cycling is a low-impact physical activity
- Riding to work builds exercise into daily behaviours and is a time-efficient way to fit regular exercise into a busy lifestyle. Within 15km of a busy CBD, riding to work is likely to take you less time than other forms of transport
- Regular physical activity reduces the likelihood of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and some forms of cancer *2
- Cycling also helps control stress, anxiety and depression.*3
What financial benefits can you expect by encouraging employees to Ride to Work?
- Reduced car park overheads and more economic use of the land (10 Bicycles can be parked in one car space!)
- Reduced car fleet, taxi and petrol card costs
- Healthier and happier staff who are more productive at work and less likely to take sick days
- Increased connectivity through strong cycle-friendly culture
What about your environmental rating?
Road transport is responsible for nearly 12% of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, with cars alone responsible for 8%.*4 According to the Department of Climate Change, cycling just 10km each way to work instead of driving saves 1.3 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year.*5
Reports have stated that air pollution causes more deaths among Australians than road accidents: each year, on average, 2400 deaths are linked to air quality and health issues – compared with 1700 people killed in road accidents.*6
Cycle Friendly Workplace Handbook
For more information and reasons to encourage your workplace to ride to work, please take a look at the Cycle-Friendly Wokplace Handbook
This national publication is packed with case studies of successful cycle-friendly organisations around Australia including: pharmaceutical company CSL, aircraft manufacturer Hawker de Havilland, Woodside and Lend Lease property group, just to name a few.
The publication highlights the benefits of cycling including:
- reduced greenhouse gas emissions
- increased workplace wellbeing
- increased staff productivity
- reduced pressure on parking
*1 Medibank Private, 2005. The health of Australia’s workforce.
*2 Bauman, A et al, 2002. Getting Australia active, National Public Health Partnership: Melbourne
*3 Landers, Daniel M, 1997. ‘The influence of exercise on mental health’, Research Digest (Dec.), series 2, no. 12, President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.
*4 National Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2005, Australian Greenhouse Office, 2007.
*5 “Global Warming Cool it” Department of Climate Change http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/gwci/transport.html.
*6 ‘Air pollution “bigger killer than road accidents”’, Sydney Morning Herald, 2 Mar. 2004.
