Free use of e-bikes have been offered to lecturers and admin staff at Oxford Brookes University thanks to a donation from a multi-university study into sustainable cycling, cycleBOOM.
The e-bikes will be used to help staff cover the 9.8 miles between the four university campuses - Harcourt Hill, Headington, Marston Road, and Wheatley - easily, quickly, and in an environmentally friendly manner.
The bicycles have come into the possession of the staff after they were donated to them by the cycleBOOM project, a collaborative resaerch project between Oxford Brookes, Cardiff Universirty, the University of Reading, and the University of the West of England in Bristol.
The project is looking to advise the governement on green policy, speciffically targetting the aging population and the benefits safe road infrastructure and the introduction of e-bikes to the national cycling conversation will have on their mental health and longeviety.
The project's page states while its area of investigation revolves around individuals over the age of 65, its ultimate aim is to "advise policy makers and practitioners (e.g. planners, architects, engineers and designers) how our environment and technology can be designed to help people to continue to cycle in older age or to reconnect with cycling."
The three-year study had been using the e-bikes, which they recently donated to the staff at Oxford Brookes, as part of their research. The project is due to be completed in September, and as a result the bikes were no longer needed.
Dr. Tim Jones, senior research fellow at Oxford Brookes, and lead researcher on the cycleBOOM scheme, told the Oxford Brookes Research Forum magazine that "it is typically the case that older people in the UK are portrayed as lacking the capacity to cycle."
That appears to be restricted to the UK, though, as in the same article Dr. Jones points out that only 1% of all journeys made by people over the age of 65 in the UK are made by bike.
That compares to 9% in Germany, 15% in Denmark, and 23% in the Netherlands.
The encouragement of sustainable transport as well as green and sustainable infrastructure prioritised by the cycleBOOM team are also shared by Oxford Brookes university.
The university's Pro Vice-Chancellor, Professor Julie McLeod, told the Oxford Mail: "At Oxford Brookes, we are aiming to have a culture of sustainable travel embedded throughout the university and improve the health of staff and students by encouraging active travel.
"Our staff frequently move between the different campuses, whether it is for meetings, teaching or an event, and the e-bikes will provide an alternative and sustainable means of travel."
