On Tuesday 8th March, Remit helped launch the BCO Research Seminar: Market Cycles II - The Impact of Cycling on Office Buildings. The event celebrated the launch of BCO’s report, for which Remit undertook research on the impact of active transport on office specification. This is following five years of increased policy and public investment in this area since the earlier report written by Remit for BCO in 2017.
Where Can I Read it?
At the event, the report was heralded for its depth of analysis, and should you wish to read it in full you can find it on the BCO website, free for members. However, the event itself highlighted some key takeaways which prompted thought and discussion.
“It is a really comprehensive report
Active transport is becoming increasing popular
In the five years since the 2017 report on cycling’s impact for offices, there has been a growing focus on quality, rather than quantity of active travel facilities within office buildings. Offices in 2022 are competing with home. Therefore, increasingly, employees are looking for offices to be not just functional places to work, but pleasant places to visit. This has encouraged landlords to design enjoyable environments for its tenants.
In a time when active transport options are becoming increasingly popular, these pull factors to bring people into offices are needing to consider active travel requirements more and more. It is not enough to just provide copious numbers of bike racks, when employees have nowhere to adequately change, or even store their bike under cover. It is this shift away from quantity and towards quality of end-of-journey facilities which has characterised developers’ considerations for office specifications over the last five years.
“The presentation was excellent”
Not just buildings but education
The discussion during the event also addressed an important and far too often forgotten point. Active travel, while it has come far to be not exclusive, it is not yet fully inclusive. This distinction between inclusive and not exclusive opened the discussion to alternative forms of active travel, including micro-mobility (any small, lightweight devices used for short distances). During the Q&A there were several questions which touched on this aspect of the report’s findings. Being “actively inclusive”, as Kat Hanna from Lendlease described, is a continuous and rigorous consideration process, requiring developers to always look for the views least likely to be heard. The report includes detail on diverse forms of transport and how these are considered by landlords when assessing the quality of end-of-journey facilities, with many promising case studies.
However, the drive for active travel is not as simple as ‘build it and they will come’, as was brought up through questions of educating cyclists on safety. Neil Webster challenged these by suggesting education should be for ‘people’ as opposed to cyclists or drivers. If the aim is for active transport to become more popularly used in UK cities, then all those who use the space should be included in the considerations and education on safety. Furthermore, the development of active transport facilities and routes can only occur in parallel with their increased use. More users of these facilities can provide more data which will improve forecasting and future planning of end-of-journey facilities.
Increasing options for commuters
In all, the event incited wonderful discussions which did not shy away from the intricacies involved in including active travel considerations in the specification of office buildings. There is much still to do to improve the inclusivity of active travel as an option for the commuter, but there is also much to be commended which is reflected in increased policy, investment, and of course engagement from the active traveller.