I have 2 or 3 outreach workers that use bikes to get out and about. They have a quick look over the bike and just use a basic check sheet to say they've checked the important bits. Can't remember where I managed to blag the form from but it was off the WWW.

As for helmets, issued by the company along with lights. Gloves were given as well if requested.

Originally Posted by: james fleming

Just wondering if anyone has any experience of usings bikes as a mode of work trasnsport?  Travelling about 2-3 miles from one site to another.  

I'm keen to know what you used as a check sheet prior to use and after?  Paper or App what worked well?

Helmets?  What did you do / use?  

If these staff walked between sites would they need to complete a check sheet and wear a helmet?  The fatality rate per mile for pedestrians on public roads is higher than that for cyclists. (Reported road casualties Great Britain, annual report: 2016 35.4 cf 29.5 per billion passenger miles - both being massivly higher than for car occupants).

We permit people to use their own bicycles for work travel.  We require that they assert that the bicycle is properly maintained and ridden legally (actually using the same form as people that drive their own cars - though the insurance and MOT sections are not applicable to bicycles).  We do not require checklists each journey.  We do not mandate particular PPE for cycling.  We do not supply or maintain the bicycles.

We do not require that anyone travels by bicycle for work.

For avoidance of doubt: we do not require checklists for people that walk for work travel or mandate particular PPE for pedestrians either. 

Originally Posted by: Kate

While there is plenty of room for debate (although perhaps not in this thread) about whether or not cyclists should be required to wear helmets, the point that pedestrians aren't and still get killed on the roads isn't relevant.  That's because the way pedestrians get killed is by being run over.  Cycle helmets aren't designed or intended to protect people who get run over; they are designed to prevent or reduce head injury to cyclists who come off their vehicles for whatever reason and hit their heads.  Pedestrians can't fall off in the way that cyclists can so the comparison is invalid.

Equally, the reason pedestrians don't check their equipment before setting out is that they don't have any.  Cyclists do have equipment that it at least makes sense to check, such as brakes.  So that comparison between pedestrians and cyclists is also invalid.

Actually, it is precisely relevant - cyclists don't die from falling off their bikes in isolation any more than pedestrians die from falling over in isolation.  Both groups die (predominantly) when they are hit by fast-moving motor vehicles, and as you note, bicycle helmets are not designed or intended to mitigate against that.  Further, if bicycle helmets did protect against that, then the case for pedestrians to wear them would be just as strong as the case for cyclists to wear them.

The principal point is that cycling is not inherently more dangerous than walking, so why put a load of extra controls onto cycling when walking (apparently) doesn't need any?

The point that the mitigating measure that most people's knee-jerk reaction jumps on is to specifiy PPE that isn't intended to address that hazard is a decidedly secondary point.

If you consider the public segregation methods - pedestrians on pavements and law abiding cyclists on the road - then cycling must be inherently more dangerous as they are sharing space with drain covers, potholes and motor vehicles

The way I work it. I have employees that work in wide reaching areas. To use public transport or their own cars is expensive. IF they are happy to ride a bike, the charity provides one. We also supply PPE to ride the bike. Helmet, gloves etc. We don't insist that they wear it, we leave that as a judgement call by the individual. But I always caveat the issue of the helmet with the phrase, We have supplied PPE to help keep you safe. If you don't wear it and have an accident then you need to justify why you haven't worn it. We don't choose the helmet, the employee is given a healthy budget to go to a local bike shop and choose the helmet they wan't. So there are no comebacks that we have given them a bright pink my little pony helmet just to embarss them.

Seperate to the bike issue, if they request gloves, hat and scarf then I'll purchase them as well. I see that as PPE as much as hard hat and safety boots on a construction site.