Cycling promotion for health and fitness
Graham Marshall
Abstract
Western Australia has a low level of commuter cycling and a high use of cars leading to air quality problems.  Using the motivational incentive of a loan bicycle together with health tests, the Cycling 100 Project promoted the use of bicycles in a group of 100 car drivers.  The project demonstrated the possibility for encouraging car commuters to replace trips with cycling and it shows that people who replace car trips obtain significant health benefits.

Introduction
The use of cars is the most polluting behaviour in urban society.1  People in Perth experience a major type of air pollution in the form of summer photochemical smog containing ozone gas.2, 3   Ozone has many negative health and environmental effects.1  Perth exceeds World Health Organisation ozone safety levels about 15 times per year.
Western Australia has a high car ownership with 679 cars per 1000 people.  The 1996 Australian Census’s revealed that 85,000 cars were driven in to the Perth cental business district (CBD) for work purposes each day.  Almost 65,000 of these cars transported the driver only with no passengers.  At the same time, there were just 801 cycle commuters in 1996.  The car is the main form of transport in Perth and 76 per cent of trips in the metropolitan region are made by car.2, 4  A reduction in the use of cars for work trips would help to reduce air quality problems in Perth.25
The rationale for the Cycling 100 Project is that many car drivers could switch to the bicycle without encountering major problems.5, 6, 7   These people live close enough to work for cycling to be a feasible alternative to the car.  They work in organisations with end of trip facilities.  They have good access to the Perth Bicycle Network (PBN).8, 9, 10  They work regular and standard work patterns, infrequently require a car during the daytime, don’t need to carry heavy loads, and they don’t need to drop off or pick up other people on the way to work.  In spite of these conditions, however, thousands of people in this category still drive to work each day.  This group of potential cyclists formed the target audience for the Cycling 100 Project.

Methodology
Procedure and Participants
The study promoted four periods of regular moderate exercise per week for one-year using the incentive of a loan bike.  Participants in the study were drawn from 11 city centre based organisations that were willing to sponsor their staff.  The project recruited 100 riders (36 females, 64 males) with an average age of 39 years.  For inclusion in the study, participants had to meet several criteria, including the following:
•	They were regular car drivers for their work trips;
•	They lived within 10-15 kilometres of their workplace;
•	Willing to replace four car trips to work each week for one year;
•	Able to pass a series of fitness evaluations;
•	Not considering moving employment within the next 12 month period; and
•	Willing to complete all necessary pre-screening activities.
Once sponsorship was forthcoming, staff were invited to nominate themselves and enter the recruitment stage.  Recruitment involved the completion of a medical with a general practitioner, keeping a travel diary over a two-week period, completing a screening questionnaire and undergoing a fitness appraisal.  The final activity was a kilometre target calculation for each individual based on their home to work trip distance and calculated over a one-month period.  
When participants completed all these activities, they were provided with the cycling equipment.  Riders were then required to meet the monthly target over a one-year time frame.  Kilometres were monitored using a cycle computer attached to each bike.  Routine checks were also made to ensure that the bikes were being ridden to work on a regular basis.

Measurement of Effects
Data was collected in two ways.  Firstly, a test battery was used prior to the intervention and again at the conclusion of the study.  Secondly, evaluation of cycle performance was conducted on a monthly basis.  The test battery involved comparison of data regarding the following health and travel variables:
•	Physical work capacity (PWC 170 test).  This test provides a high-level indicator of aerobic fitness and can be used to compare individual participants against Australian adult fitness norms;
•	Plasma cholesterol tests of LDL, HDL, VDL, triglycerides, etc;
•	Coronary risk ratio;
•	Job satisfaction using the 15 item Warr, Cook and Wall Job Satisfaction Survey.  This instrument is widely cited in the job satisfaction literature and covers a range of issues related to intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction themes; and
•	Monthly evaluation of kilometre target data.  This information was collected from a computer attached to each bicycle.

Equipment
Each rider was provided with an Indi-Maverick mountain bike equipped with lights, lock, cycle computer and helmet.

Results
The cyclists replaced over 121,000 kilometres of car commuting with cycling.  Figure 1. Illustrates how the cyclists always remained above the target established for the project.
Figure 1.  Despite seasonal variation, the cyclists always stayed above target.

Target kms

Perth winter

Perth summer

Month

Using SPSS (version 8), each of the various health-test results was submitted to a dependent t test.  Table 2 illustrates the descriptive statistics.  Results are shown below:
•	Physical Work Capacity: t (41) = -2.10, p = 0.042.  This indicates that aerobic fitness was significantly improved after the yearlong cycling intervention.  Those people in the low fitness category dropped from eight to five people and those in the high fitness category jumped from 24 to 32 people;
•	Coronary Risk Ratio: t (35) = 3.53, p = 0.01.  This indicates that the risk of heart attack and stroke was reduced significantly between the first and second health test periods;
•	Total Cholesterol: t (34) = 2.58, p = 0.014.  This indicates that plasma cholesterol was reduced in the participants and the following results indicate that HDL (good) cholesterol was significantly increased while LDL (bad) cholesterol was significantly decreased;
•	LDL Cholesterol: t (34) = 4.49, p = 0. 00;
•	HDL Cholesterol: t (34) = -2.09, p = 0.04; and
•	VLD Lipoproteins: t (34) = -2.16, p = 0.01.

Table 2.  Descriptive statistics from health tests.
Test	No	Pre-test mean	Post-test mean	
Physical work capacity	42	3.61 (SD: 1.22)	4.00 (SD: 1.12)	
Total cholesterol	36	5.50 (SD: 0.96)	5.24 (SD: 0.83	
HDL cholesterol	36	1.65 (SD: 0.34)	1.74 (SD: 0.39)	
LDL cholesterol	36	3.38 (SD: 0.92)	3.00 (SD: 0.73)	
Coronary risk ratio	36	3.45 (SD: 0.97)	3.15 (SD: 0.83)	

Using SPSS (version 8), a dependent t test was also conducted on pre- and posttest results taken from the 15-item Job Satisfaction Survey.  The pre-test mean score was 5.0 and the post-test mean was 5.4.  Participants demonstrated improved satisfaction on ten of the 15 items (with two remaining the same and three showing a small decline).
Discussion
The incentive of a “free” bike encouraged 100 car drivers to replace a minimum of four car trips per week over a twelve-month period.  The study demonstrated the efficacy and success of this approach to health promotion.  A limitation to the approach is actually finding sponsors with an interest in committing dollars to health promotion activities.  A further problem of the low level of available resources, was the lack of an adequate control group of non-cyclists.  A control group would have allowed for unequivocal attribution of the positive health impacts of the study to the cycling intervention.  The next phase of the project involves recruitment of 300 new riders alongside a comparison control of non-riders.
The Cycling 100 Project demonstrated that car drivers could be encouraged to forego their polluting form of commuting and change to the bicycle.  It was also demonstrated that new riders could gain significant improvements in fitness as a result.  In conclusion, large numbers of the 85,000 car drivers travelling into Perth each day could be converted to cycling using the incentive of a free bike together with ongoing monitoring of personal health and monthly kilometre targets.

References
1.  Rowell, A., & Fergusson, M.  (1991).  Bikes not Fumes: The emission and health benefits of a modal shift from motor vehicles to cycling.  Cyclists’ Touring Club, Surrey.
2.  Department of Environmental Protection.  (1996).  The Perth Haze Study 1994-1996 .  Dept of Environmental Protection, Perth.
3.  Western Power and Department of Environmental Protection.(1996).  The Perth Photochemical Smog Study.  Government of Western Australia.
4.  Anonymous Author.  (1999).  Strategic Scan, WA.  TransScan  Vol 1, No 4.
5.  Environmental Protection Authority.  (1999).  Measurements of Motor Vehicle Pollutants and Fleet Average Emission Factors in Melbourne.  Environmental Protection Authority. Victoria.
6.  Marshall, G.  (1998).  The Cycling 100 Project: Sponsorship Proposal for Main Roads WA. Department of Environmental Protection, WA.
7.  Marshall, G.  (1999).  Update information for the Cycling 100 Programme.  Department of Environmental Protection, WA
8.  BikeWest.  (1999).  Evaluation and Cost: Benefit Analysis Perth Bicycle Network Stage II (2001/2 - 2004/5).  Government of Western Australia.
9.  Main Roads Department.  (1998).  Main Roads Annual Report 97-98.  Government of WA. 
10.  National Bicycle Greenway.  (1999).  National Bicycle Greenway.  [Online 27/7/99]: http://www.bikeroute.com/index.html