Photo: Lemvigh Müller

A sense of community, competitions and prizes motivate cyclists to go for more km. According to the results from a local bicycle campaign in the Municipality of Randers in Denmark, 47 % bike more than usual when using the cycling app.

Cycling through the four seasons

During a local cycle campaign in 2014, employees from four workplaces in Randers tracked their routes and km with a cycling app. The goal of the campaign was to get more of Randers’ citizens to bike despite the season. So the Municipality of Randers offered free fitness and health checks and lent e-bikes and mountain bikes to the employees of four local workplaces.

“When it gets cold and dark in autumn, fewer people feel like cycling to work. So we talked to the employees about participating in a campaign where they had to register their bike trips with an app. They took up the challenge although the majority had not used the app before,” explains project manager of Randers Cycle City, Birgit Berggrein.

Stronger sense of community at work
After the two-month campaign, 83 % of the participants filled out a survey. The results showed that the campaign had motivated 47 % of the employees to bike more than they usually did. The survey pointed to the sense of community as a significant factor. 93 % stated that the teamwork involved was important:

“The cycle campaign sparked the sense of community at the workplace. We were doing something together, and we laughed and teased each other about how much or how little we biked,“ says one of the participants.

Motivated by internal competition
Another significant factor in the campaign’s success was the competition among the participants. With the app, they could keep track of how often and how many km their colleagues biked. This inspired 39 % of the participants to bike some extra kilometers – also on the weekends.

“If you could see that some of the colleagues had biked more than you, it motivated the rest of us to up the ante as well,” says a participant.

Aside from the competitive aspects, the prizes also allured to the participants. 42 % biked more in the hopes of winning gift certificates and movie tickets.

In total, the employees at the four workplaces biked 10,467 kilometers. Far from all employees participated in the campaign, however.

“The campaign only targets people with a smartphone which of course excludes some. But overall, the campaign was a success. More people biked in the autumn months and the campaign maintained the employees and the workplaces’ focus on and interest in cycling,“ says Birgit Berggrein.

This is a translation of an article by Britt Møller, Municipality of Randers.