Brompton Bike Hire // The Campaign For Movement
A couple of months ago Brompton Bike Hire contacted me to discuss their Campaign for Movement. When I looked through their campaign, I knew immediately I wanted to be on board. I love cycling around the city. It feels good to be moving, to avoid busy tube lines, I get to learn my way around and see all the architecture, and it means I save money. However, to be completely honest, I also love my stylish Liv Road Bike. I looked at this funny little fold up bike and wasn’t convinced it would become my primary mode of transport in the city. I had no idea at that stage how much this folding bicycle would revolutionise the way I move around the city.
The reality is our cities are killing us. We have completely lost touch with our surroundings and our urban lifestyles are damaging our health. We’re stressed out, suffering from mental health problems, obesity is through the roof and pollution is at dangerous levels.
There’s a solution at the heart of this. Movement. If we can find a better way to move around our cities, we can start to solve many of the problems associated with life in urban environments. These issues are often interconnected.
For example, the UK is the tenth most congested country in the world and according to The British Heart Foundation outdoor air pollution contributes to around 40,000 premature deaths in the UK each year. If we can encourage more people to walk or cycle, we will have fewer engines on our roads creating emissions, gridlocks and traffic accidents.
City-dwellers also have a 40% increased risk of depression and double the rate of schizophrenia. Regular exercise is found to have a profoundly positive impact on depression, anxiety, ADHD and more. Encouraging people to get more physical exercise will encourage better mental health and tackle a wide range of other health problems (a recent study by Glasgow University found that cycling to work alone lowers the risk of dying early by 40 per cent and reduces the chance of developing cancer by 45 per cent).
Brompton have been speaking to some of the world’s leading urban experts to try and understand how we can solve the challenges we face and how we can turn our cities into places that encourage healthy movement. Swimming, cycling, running, walking – these are some of the activities which supercharge our wellbeing, not damage it.
The infrastructure needed should be there to support everyone. That’s why Brompton have created the Campaign for Movement – a rallying cry to everybody to act now, before it’s too late. If we work together, we can become a catalyst for change: creating healthier, happier cities that enable citizens, rather than hold them back.
Brompton Bike Hire
Brompton Bike Hire exists to tackle some of the big issues I mentioned above, get people moving and increase their sense of independence and freedom in urban spaces. There are hire stations all over England and rentals start at just £3.50 a day. Once you hire a Brompton you can take it to work, take it home, you can even take it on trains, buses and the overground at peak times. The bikes can be folded under your desk at work, taken into meetings, taken home or folded into the boot of your car for longer journeys. All you have to do is download the app, register and reserve a bike online to collect from one of the 40 docks.
What I love about the Brompton Bike Hire is that you can return your bike to any dock, so I can collect a bike at Bristol Parkway, jump on the train to London with it and then return it back at Kings Cross. Rentals are also per 24 hours, not per day, so you don’t need to worry about keeping the bike overnight, take it out at 8am and return it by 8am the following day and you will only be charged for one day.
But how much does it cost I hear you asking? There are two pricing options: frequent and leisure. Frequent has an annual fee of £25 and daily charge of £3.50, and Leisure has an annual fee of £5 and a daily charge of £6.50.
To see if there’s a dock on your commute check here.
For a demo on how to fold and unfold click here.
Click here for the app in Itunes.
Click here for the app in Google Play.
I promise to be transparent with all of my partnerships and only work with companies that I genuinely use and support. If you have any questions about Brompton Bike Hire or my involvement with them please do ask away.
Happy cycling, pedal forth and release your inner traffic jam.
