UOW staff member Kaye Osborn is pictured with her electric bike, whic...

On your bike: National Ride to Work Day at UOW a success

Around 145 UOW staff, students and community members took part in National Ride to Work Day at the University of Wollongong today (October 15).

According to Jessica Saad, Marketing and Communication Coordinator in the newly formed environmental unit at UOW, the event was a huge success. She said four times the amount of riders compared to 2007’s event turned up this year.

“It was a great morning – the weather held up! – and I think people enjoyed riding to work.”

A free community breakfast sponsored by UOW and Bakers Delight was held for the registered riders.

The surprise star of the event was an electric bike ridden by one of the Ride to Work participants. UniAdvice staff member Kaye Osborn’s electric cycle attracted a lot of attention and she gave demonstrations to the rest of the crowd.

The electric bike, which uses a battery that Ms Osborn charges at home using green power, makes riding to work easier than a normal cycle and only ten minutes slower than driving a car.

“If I rode my normal bike from Corrimal, I can’t take the hill on Foothills Road, so I have to go along the bike track and that takes an about hour,” Ms Osborn said.

“So on an electric bike I can go along Foothills Road and it takes me around 25 minutes to get to work.”

Ms Osborn is aiming to ride to work at least twice a week during summer, and said there are many benefits of cycling to work.

“Cycling is a great way to commute to work because it cuts down on greenhouse gas emissions and is a good opportunity to get some exercise. But not all of us are fighting fit and ready to take on the foothills of the escarpment by bicycle,” she said.  

“An electric boosted bike makes commuting to UOW by cycle an attractive option for me as the assistance from the electric motor makes the trip much easier and faster.” 

A survey of registered participants showed nationally that 29 per cent of new riders are still riding to work after the National Ride to Work Day 2007, and Ms Saad says she hopes this trend will continue at UOW.

“Quite a lot of the participants today weren’t aware that we have 174 bike racks with the capacity for 521 bikes on campus,” she said.

“Now that more people know this, and have experienced riding to work, we hope it will be easier for the to ride to work or classes at uni.”