Push to get staff on their bikes

Cycle journeys have doubled in London over the past five years

in http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4480830.stm

Businesses who help employees to ditch their cars and head to work on foot, bike or public transport can be awarded up to £1,000.

Transport for London (TfL) says it will award the funding to pay for showers and lockers.

It is also offering companies free cycle racks and bikes for work pools at trade prices.

TfL said a single parking space, which could house five bikes, costs up to £2,000 per year to maintain.

Ben Plowden of TfL said: "Cycling is seeing an exciting renaissance in the capital, but a lack of cycle parking and changing facilities in the work place are regularly cited as barriers to employees cycling.

"We want to help businesses remove those barriers and to encourage firms to provide more transport solutions for their staff."

TfL said its figures showed the number of cycle journeys on London's roads doubled from 59,000 to 119,000 between 2000 and 2005.