I like to keep myself honest in regard to the frequency I am in the office, and when I am, make sure that on a decent number of days I cycle to work, so here are the H1, 2023 stats. I do this with a simple spreadsheet I updat every week.
Total working days were 108 taking account of holidays as well.
Of those, 66 were in the office or equivalent (eg customer, event), and 42 were at home.
PwC’s general “ask” is to be in the office 2-3 days per week so for me I was in 61% of the time, which of course is equivalent to 3 days a week and meets my own accountability target.
Of those 66 office or equivalent days, I cycled in 26 times (a fraction under 40%). The bike was bought with Cycle to work about 8 years ago and has lasted brilliantly with an annual service. I have panniers on there that I attach a pannier bag too for easy transition and good lights also bought many years ago. PwC has a phenomenal bike park under the building and excellent shower and clothing storage facilities.
To be honest I was a bit disappointed in the quantity of rides but it’s often been the case in the first quarter of the year (Jan-Mar) cycling can be a bit hit or miss with the weather. Normally a good week is 3d in, 2d bike, 1d train. Notably I dipped in March this year when I really struggled with dreadful weather and was particularly busy/tired. Although I am reminded of the old cycling adage – “there is no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong gear”.
My train travel is £9.80 return on TFL Contactless. I never ever drive to work and have not done for nearly 10 years now, greatly reducing my mileage and carbon footprint.
So the amount saved is (WFH 42 days * 9.80 = 411.60) + (Cycle 26 days * 9.80 = 254.80) = £666.40 saved over 6 months.
It’s hard to get accurate kcal, but taking a rough midpoint of 325kcal burned each way (14km) according to my apple watch, let us not forget that is nearly 17000 calories burnt/spent as well! 🍕🍕🍕!
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