Sustainable travel support for Bristol businesses during COVID -19

How we have responded and some tips on what Bristol businesses can do to keep staff active and support sustainable travel post lock down.

We hope your business, staff and families are keeping safe and finding new ways to stay positive and active during these difficult times.

Due to the risks associated with some of our activities we have had to temporarily cease operations of some of the key offers.

However, we still keen to continue our support for you and your businesses.

Many of you will have had to adapt to new ways of working such as working from home, conference calls and juggling responsibilities at home with work. So below we have outlined our package of support that we are providing during this outbreak which includes some useful links, tips and activities you can do whilst at home.

Jump to:

How have we responded to the emergency in Bristol? Sustainable Travel team offers available: Tips for working from home Preparing for return to work Identify the positive outcomes of working from home

How have we responded to the emergency in Bristol?

  • Provided electric and hybrid bikes to both main hospitals to be used by NHS staff
  • Refocused our loan bike scheme to offer a bike to key workers who used to travel by public transport
  • Increased our Wheels to Work offer to £100 discount when buying a refurbished bike, and have opened this up to Key Workers (From June 1st this has reverted for those looking for or starting a new job you can get more info about our Wheels to Work offers here)
  • Offered our business electric bikes to businesses that can offer local deliveries and provided trailers to local food distributors to enable deliveries to isolated and vulnerable residents

Sustainable Travel team offers available:

One to one travel advice sessions

We have set up a series of virtual travel planning sessions to help you and your staff plan how to get to work safely and sustainably. We have sessions coming up throughout June, they last around 20 minutes and are via zoom or telephone. Our expert travel advisors will help you with:

  • Planning the best routes to work for you whether you want to walk, cycle, take the bus or train
  • Talk through what measures are being put in place on bus and trains
  • Possible route closures or changes to your journey
  • Signpost you to a range of free support including adult cycle training, loan bikes, second-hand bike shops, money off-bike scheme(for those eligible) to help you travel sustainably.

Click here to book virtual travel planning session (note when entering your telephone number. you will need to change the country from US to UK in the drop-down list)

One to one Cycle training

Through Life Cycle UK we offer Free one to one cycle training. They offer 3 types, beginner, intermediate and advanced but will cater the lessons to your needs. To sign up to one to one cycle training please go to individual support.

 Dr Bikes

if you have staff that will like to get on there bikes or need a tune up we can organise for mechanic to come and set up in your car park or open space near by to come and service staff bikes. to arrange please email us on [email protected] .

Bristol Love to Ride

In keeping with government advice, Bristol City Council are partnering with Love to Ride from April 2020, and will be encouraging people to #ChooseCycling as their exercise of choice and mode of transport for essential travel. It will be a great way to virtually keep connected with other people using bikes to stay active, from beginners to advanced peddlers!

You can create a free Love To Ride account here.

There are plenty of prizes to be won and stories to be shared, and keep an eye out for Bike Week in June!

Better By Bike

Loan electric and hybrid bikes

  • We have limited numbers of bikes available for businesses
  • Preference is given to Key Workers

Tips for working from home

Useful links and tips for working from home

World Economic Forum best tips to work from home video. Click to watch on Facebook.

How to work from home successfully

Top 5 tips from Travelwest for working from home:

  • Set yourself up with a comfortable work station. Make sure that wherever you’ll be set up you won’t need to slouch, or strain your neck, and that it is well lit.
  •  Take regular breaks and get up from your work space to stretch your legs and arms.
  • If you can, go for a bike ride, jog or walk when you finish work so that there is a clear end to your working day (almost like you are commuting home!)
  • Set up regular virtual catch up meetings to keep in touch with colleagues – it’s good to see familiar faces during your working day so you don’t feel so isolated.
  • Set you and your colleagues an office active challenge (or download ours) to keep motivated.

Useful links:

Virtual meetings

Apps such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Blue Jeans are great for running online meetings, and allow video sharing so great for keeping in touch with colleagues and business contacts! Other platforms are available and we would advise you to check with your business first.

They also can be used to stay in touch with friends and family, or try Google Hangouts, Messenger video calls, Whatsapp video calls, or Houseparty which allows you to play games with other users!

Many of the above are free or are currently offering free trials. 

 Staying active

Preparing for return to work

Here are some things you can do or encourage staff to do while working from home to make positive changes for when business as usual commences.

Talk to your cycle to work scheme supplier about fast tracking the process and if you run rounds at specific time of year how about doing one over the next couple months for staff.

Workplace Travel Audit

  • We can carry out a detailed desktop audit of your business and its facilities and make recommendations of improvements you can make that will help your staff to make more sustainable travel choices. This covers: Policies supporting sustainable travel e.g. flexible working
  • Car park management as well as our calculator which can let you know how much saving can be made with removal of car parking spaces
  • Travel plan – if you do not have one we can provide a template
  • Pool vehicles
  • Other facilities that support travel e.g. drying rooms
Workplace Travel Audit Sheet Download xlsx

Fill in and return to [email protected]

Designate an Active travel Champion

We provide a range of support to champions in more than 130 organisations across Bristol and they can access our FREE support to your business. There is a detailed list attached, these include:

  • Workplace cycle repair kit
  • Travel roadshows with Journey planning
  • Dr Bike
  • Bike maintenance session
  • Year round campaigns and promotions
Active Travel Champion Support 2020 Download docx

 Grants

We provide 50% match funded grant for a range of measure to improve sustainable travel for your site. While you might not be able to get quotes at the moment, you can still start planning what you may need. Previous grants have covered:

  • Additional bike storage
  • Lockers
  • Drying facilities
  • Electric pool bikes for staff
  • Car share bays

 Joinmyjourney (JMJ)

Sign up for joinmyjourney.org

JMJ is a journey sharing platform that allows staff to find colleagues to join your commute via cycling, walking and Carsharing. If we are still social distancing it can be a great way to keep active on your way to work or cut down on those you are in contact with if you must drive.

There are already Free Journey sharing already set up in Temple Quarter with an additional zone coming Bristol city centre. We have spaces to set up further zones  or individual businesses. Key features:

  • Free to join: as part of Bristol city Council Sustainable transport offer.
  • Safe to use: you will only be visible to colleagues in the same workplace or agreed businesses nearby.
  • Set your preference: You can set your own preferences – such as gender, non-smoking & food.

If you would like to get registered please email [email protected].

 Can walking be part of your new work day?

Walk to work
  • If you live within 3 miles of your work walking is a great way to; stay active, socially distance, maintain good mental health and get that dose of daily exercise our body needs to maintain healthy lifestyle.
  • If you are working from home have a virtual walk to work in the morning before you start your day or go for a Lunch time walk.
 Walking meeting

Why not have 1 to 1 meetings as a walking meeting. Even if working from home managers can meet up with staff  in an open space to catch up face to face once a month same could be done for team meeting to keep out of closed building space.

Identify the positive outcomes of working from home

Consider if some of the changes you’ve had to make in your organisation should be kept:

  • To save on travel and time, could you attend more meetings virtually? Most are getting use to video conferencing.
  • To save on emissions commuting to work, could you work from home one more day a week?
  • You may have had more time to spend on fitness, could you take up walking or cycling for your commute?
  • Take some time to consider the journeys you made before, in hindsight how many were crucial or could be swapped for a different mode?

For more information on COVID-19