Cycle to work scheme – weekend warriors or daily commuters?

Institute for Transport StudiesFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT

Cycle to Work scheme – Weekend

Warriors or Daily Commuters?Scottish Transport Applications & Research Conference

Wednesday 21 May 2014

Anne Clarke James Laird Jeremy Shires

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

UK cycling context

UK cycling: a journey

through time and space…

2% of trips made by bike in the UK in 2008 (and 2012)

Bicycle usage fell from over 14 billion miles annually in 1949 to around 3 billion miles annually by the 1970s and then remained fairly static

CAR USE

BIKE USE

How the C2W scheme works

• Salary sacrifice

• 12-18 months repayment

• Payments deducted before tax and

National Insurance

• Final payment to transfer ownership

• 25% saving for basic rate tax payers

• >50% use should be for commuting

About the data

• York and Leeds

• 6 public sector employers (2 in York, 4 in Leeds)

• Online survey (35 questions)

• Survey dates: June/July 2013

• 254 responses

• Respondents accessed the scheme ~2010-2012

Who uses the scheme?

N=254

23%

30%

47%

Cycle to Work scheme users

Did not own a bikealready

Owned a bike butcycledinfrequently/ never

Owned a bike andcycled regularly

53% of respondents reported no weekly cycling before using the scheme

Impacts – propensity to cycle

92% of respondents cycled to work after using the scheme

96% of respondents cycled weekly (all trip purposes)

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

49%

35%

8%8%

Proportion of scheme users who cycled to work at

different frequencies after using the scheme

Not cycling to work

Less than 2 days per

week

2+ days per week

Every day

Impacts – propensity to cycle

78%

11%

3.5%8%

Do you use the bike purchased through the Cycle to Work scheme to cycle to

work?

Yes

Yes, with another means of transport

I use a different bike to commute

I don't cycle to work

Note: figures are subject to rounding

Impacts – propensity to cycle

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Before

After

*

*The before information for leisure cycling is an estimate

Impacts – car mileage reduction

19%

Existing cyclists

59%

Those who owned a bike but did no

cycling

51%

Those who did not own a bike

Average mileage reduction:35 miles per week = 1,820 miles per year

(22% of estimated average car mileage per annum)*

This ranged from a few miles to over 100 miles per week

for individual respondents

*DfT (2013). Statistical Release – National Travel Survey: 2012

Impacts – health

27% increase in the number of scheme users who are sufficiently active

(from 70% of all users to 89% of all users)

Appraising the Cycle to Work

scheme

CBA does not capture the main benefit of the scheme to

the user:

• A change to the purchase cost of a bicycle

Financial analysis plugs this gap

CBA includes:

• Changes in external costs

• The resource costs of the initiative

• Change to use cost through a policy initiative (none for C2W)

Approach:

Cost benefit analysis + financial analysis

Appraising the Cycle to Work

scheme – financial analysis

(£000’s for all respondents over a ten-year appraisal period)

Employees: £35 income tax/NI savings£252 vehicle operating cost savings£33 car sales£300 fare savings-£135 bike purchases-£455 maintenance costs

£49 benefit overall

Employers:£20 NI savings-£17 opportunity cost of loan

£3 benefit overall

Government:-£55 income tax/NI losses-£72 fuel duty losses-£19 vehicle excise duty losses£60 extra VAT revenue

-£86 loss overall

Appraising the Cycle to Work

scheme – financial analysis

Public transport providers:-£300 fare revenue losses

-£300 loss overall

Car industry:-£180 vehicle maintenance sales-£33 car sales

-£213 loss overall

Cycle to work scheme providers:£21 commission and final market value

£21 benefit overall

Cycle industry:£114 bike sales (minus commission fee)£455 bike maintenance sales

£569 benefit overall

(£000’s for all respondents over a ten-year appraisal period)

Appraising the Cycle to Work

scheme – financial analysis

Winners and Losers

Cycle industry £569 benefit

Employees £49 benefit

Public transport providers £300 loss

Car industry £213 loss

Employers £3 benefit

Cycle to work scheme providers £21 benefit

Government £86 loss

(£000’s for all respondents over a ten-year appraisal period)

Appraising the Cycle to Work

scheme – cost benefit analysis

Benefits

£485 in physical fitness benefits (society)

£253 in decongestion benefits (economy)

£41 in absenteeism benefits (economy)

£23 in National Insurance savings (economy)

£14 in greenhouse gases (environmental)

~£5 from other marginal external costs (noise, local air quality, infrastructure)

Disbenefits

£385 in fare revenue losses (economy)

£61 in income tax and National Insurance losses (public accounts)

£23 in Vehicle Excise Duty (public accounts)

£21 in accidents (safety)

£14 in indirect taxation (fuel duty and VAT)

(£000’s for all respondents over a ten-year appraisal period)

Appraising the Cycle to Work

scheme – cost benefit analysis

Cost benefit analysis summary

BCR is 3.5: The scheme represents high value for money for government

Appraising the Cycle to Work

scheme – discussion of findings

� Could funding be better spent elsewhere?

� High level of cycle ‘funding’ through the scheme

� Would alternatives be better?

� Does not specifically target those who most need to become more active

� Does activity substitution need to be accounted for

in appraisal of active travel schemes?

� Results showed many scheme users replaced other physical activity with cycling

Appraising the Cycle to Work

scheme – summary and conclusions

� The C2W scheme significantly increases cycling levels

� Overall impact is reduced by high uptake from existing

cyclists (around half of users)

� Users are ‘weekend warriors’ and ‘daily [or less frequent]

commuters’

� The C2W scheme also encourages cycling for other trip

purposes

� Overall represents good value for money for government

References

Statistics

Slide 2

Goodwin, P. 2013. Get Britain Cycling: Report from the Enquiry and DfT. 2013. National Travel Survey 2012

Keep, M. 2013. Road cycling: statistics, Standard Note SN/SG/06224, House of Commons Library

Pictures

• http://www.10portmansquare.com/10portmansquare.html

• http://brompton.com/pages/9035

• http://dclibrary.org/node/30577

• http://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2014/02/new-guidelines-double-dose-recommended-physical-activity-adults

• http://www.psdgraphics.com/3d/gold-pound-symbol/

• http://www.myriadonline.co.uk/products.php?id=3806&name=Weighing%20Scales%20with%20Brass%20Weights

• http://www.teach-ict.com/as_a2_ict_new/ocr/A2_G063/332_designing_systems/perception/miniweb/pg4.htm

• http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/Why-Facebooks-NewGen-Data-Center-Leads-by-Example-692707/

• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/children_shealth/10116733/Child-obesity-hospital-admissions-quadruple.html

• http://www.cityjoggingtours.co.uk/our-jogging-tours.html

• http://www.theguardian.com/money/2011/jul/30/hmrc-treasury-select-committee

• http://www.adventurecycling.org/resources/bicycle-travel-awards/

Appraising the Cycle to Work

scheme

Questions

Contact details: [email protected]