Civil servants encouraged to get on a bike
(CNS): Public sector workers are being given the chance to use bicycles to get around with a three-month bike-share trial at the government HQ on Elgin Avenue. The Minister of Commerce, Planning and Infrastructure, in partnership with Cycle Cayman, is providing five bicycles on a dock by the staff entrance that can be released free of charge using an access app, giving workers a greener transport alternative.
Civil servants can sign up on the app using their government email address. This will allow them to unlock the bikes and use any of the bikes provided by Cycle Cayman around the island.
Planning Minister Joseph Hew said the three-month pilot was part of this year’s Energy Cayman campaign.
“Following the success of ‘Car Free Day’ in 2019, which included the use Cycle Cayman bicycles, we decided to make their bikes available for a longer period of time to encourage alternative transportation, particularly amongst civil servants,” he said. “The National Energy Policy (NEP) encourages the use of non-fossil burning vehicles as an alternative mode of transportation. One of the strategies of the NEP is to encourage cycling as an alternative mode of transportation.”
The pilot will also provide an opportunity to assess the inclination of people to use bikes to get around during the day.
Energy Policy Coordinator Kristen Augustine applauded Cycle Cayman for taking the innovative step of creating an automated BikeShare system here.
“We look forward to our partnership with them by providing bikes at the Government Administration Building,” she said. “We believe the BikeShare system will provide convenient, easy access for those who can use a bike for a quick trip within George Town for a meeting or to run an errand. We are working with the George Town Manager to determine additional locations to place bikes in George Town,” Augustine added.
She said the ministry wanted businesses to consider providing free access to the Cycle Cayman BikeShare system for their staff as well.
The ministry will be launching a George Town Shuttle ‘Park and Ride’ project in the near future, which will work in conjunction with the BikeShare system, as people will be able to take a bus to George Town and have bikes available for short trips during the day, the ministry explained in a release.
Cycle Cayman is an automated BikeShare system with locations at Camana Bay, at the Regatta Business Park and by the George Town Craft Market. Bikes can be taken from docks at any of its five solar powered stations and returned to any other of its stations in the system. Members of the public can also use the bikes by signing up and creating a paid account via the Cycle Cayman app.
The ministry’s Energy Cayman initiative promotes energy efficiency and conservation methods to residents and businesses in the Cayman Islands, while encouraging a sustainable lifestyle through responsible and innovative energy supply and consumption. It was launched to meet the goals in the Government’s National Energy Policy, which includes 70% of electricity generation from renewable sources by 2037.
For more information visit the NEP website
or follow @EnergyCayman on Facebook.
Category: Local News
How can civil servants ride bicycles, when they can’t even answer their work phones
Funny
Jon Jon and Ju Ju first!!!!
They prefer donkeys. The donkeys wish otherwise.
This has to be their best idea of the year! Doomed to failure like everything else but still. Someone was awake at the last meeting and remembered what his wife said about bikes.
Suppose it’s one way of purging the wage bill at CIG. Anyone stupid or brave enough to ride one of this ridiculous Boris bikes will surely be killed on these roads.
Who is paying for the bikes? Must be a charity – can’t be a money maker??
It’s not that difficult to figure out, one of the two owners is a pseudo civil servant, moonlighting, both have relationships with PPM elected members. Send an FOI to extract the details of how much CIG is paying for this service if you need them that badly, you can bet your ass it’s something though.
Not going to happen.
Ok.. Share ride bicycles unlocked will end un in another Caribbean or Central American Country within 15 days.
Govt Workers.. how can you have bicycles without baskets for them to get their Patties and Cocobread and soft drinks . Really.
MLAS biking!!!!!!! Hard to see this every happening. Some Civil Servants already do so. But riding a bike on Cayman roads is putting your life in utter danger. No!!! No!!!! No!!!!!!
What I suggest, is to encourage carpooling. A concept that must start somewhere and now is just a better time than ever.
Another idea would be to implement a moratorium on the importation of vehicles for say 3 to 5 years. That would mean no increase in cars for that time period and those seeking to purchase vehicles could only do so with the supply already on the islands. This will also decrease the already high economic leakage that is happening in our country.
Please install bath facilities at the offices. Sweating due to dangerous high humidity and anxiety due to fear of lunatic drivers trying to knock me to eternity! Whew.
It’s really good to see that during these trying times our Government has a sense of humor to lift our spirits….oh wait they’re being serious? Never mind…. my bad.
First of all we need blue paint bike lane on the roads. That will give more awareness to drivers. Second people will use e-bikes not pedalling bike
Biking here???!! Wow! I don’t even know if I’d risk it on the Brac. We really missed the boat when we did road upgrades, and new roads and failed to provide a safe lane for bikes. I would love to bike to and from work, however I love breathing even more.
Monkey see, Monkey do….I want to see each MLA on a bicycle first then I might think about risking my life!
Joey will be on his bike come May.
how about his do nothing ass get on a bike and ride into town..or better yet fix the damn roads for better traffic flow and not 3 lanes headed into one approaching town joey who need to get his head out of his ass
Living in prospect I can’t understand how we have no stop light system at the roundabout.
If people used roundabouts properly they would work better, unfortunately the NRA for whatever reason won’t allow you to go straight across in the outside lane and far too many people take the first exit from the inside lane.
get on bike and get killed…these ppl here dont respect bicycles….??? and police dont seem to care about prosecuting speeders…
What? It’s not April…. because you gotta be a damn FOOL to get on a bike in Cayman with the amount of incompetent drivers we have on our roads.
Not going to risk my life.. no sah!
Which one of the Funeral Homes own the bike company.
Ga need park up some boats outside too with this weddah
You first Joey.
The MLA’s should be leading by example and riding bicycles not big trucks.
Yeah, ok then. You go first mate and get a REAL feel for the level of idiocy on the roads here. The ‘test’ (ha ha ha ha) to get your licence is a joke. Stop dishing out licences like confetti just to get money in the coffers then the standard of driving might improve. You take your life in someone else’s hands on this island.
There you have it folks, Ppms renewable energy solution! 5 bicycles
Fix the cost of electricity in these islands Joey fa Christ sake. What 5 bikes going do ? Why you not forcing CUC to expand solar ?
Cycling, with e-assistance, is ideal here for about 90% of the year. At least it would be if, as others have pointed out, the roads weren’t full of imbeciles.
Example today. South Sound, heading to Grand Harbour. In the vicinity of Red Bay dock, two cars overtook on a solid white line. The vehicle they overtook was a Japanese pickup thing, heavily overloaded and probably doing 25mph. In their haste to overtake, the second vehicle nearly hit the first one as the one in front braked as it got to the speed displaying unit.
The clown show then ramped up a notch. The little overloaded truck was now followed by a jeep, then a yellow school bus from John Gray. The bus pulled into the oncoming lane, overtook the jeep, then stayed on the wrong side of the road to overtake the truck. Meanwhile, oncoming traffic had now appeared that had to come to a stop to enable the school bus full of children to complete it’s stupid maneuver without crashing.
By the time the school bus had got to grand harbour roundabout and waited, the traffic behind it caught it up. The bus had a net gain of about 5 seconds, and to get these precious 5 seconds, the driver nearly had a head on collision.
It makes me want to give up at life, as these near misses are not even unusual any more.
THIS IS EVERYDAY! I’m so sick for the do nothing police farce. They are never around and since it’s been raining I’ve not seen them once.
If it’s raining, I’ll bet you good money piece are actually tied up with a single vehicle accident in which a power pole jumped into a wet road.
That said, police driving standards here generally mirror that of most of the population. That’s not in a good way.
That’s no excuse because there should be more traffic cops deployed.
Wow what an achievement! Another freeby for Gov employees and public have to pay! Gonna cycle from Gov Amin Bldg to Post Office or Court Blg? As long as I have two working legs, will walk!
Ministers and COs first
Joey going to need a bike in May 2021 when him and his lot are sent packing for selling out the country. He is truly useless and does not care about anything other Dart and developers that are desperate for him to be premier. They own him we will make sure he is voted out so it never happens.
Drivers are still driving too close to gawk and scare cyclists. This is an offense in the U.K. The roads edges are poorly maintained, full of sharp edges and potholes. Where there are marked lanes they are shared with pedestrians who walk two and three abreast forcing cyclist into speeding traffic. The cycle paths are not swept, lots of vegetation cuttings left from hedge trimming and dead animals left to rot. It’s a good idea to have more people use bikes, but the infrastructure for a pleasant experience is just not there. The cycling association knows this. Ride at your own risk!
8:09pm
Biking has to start at the top. Get the over-sized ministers on those bikes and see how long they will last. Next, those bikes will disappear in short order.
While I believe this is a step in the right direction, it feels like government is toying with us.
The Cayman islands created their infrastructure with motor vehicles in mind, and only motor vehicles. The roads are not for cyclists and it shows in driver mentality. Its clear that motor vehicle drivers believe that they have a right to road at all times. I think that there are many reasons for that, but partly because the infrastructure is meant for motor vehicles.
So to come out with 5 bicycles and take a photo smiling I have to wonder why I feel so insulted. Its that they don’t see the problem or they don’t have any inclination to fix the foundation and are just pandering.
I swear if it na George Town hospital trying murder ya leave it to Government to finds ways to make the Grim Reaper job easier….SMH
LMAO
Use a bicycle on these roads knowadays when at any moment some speeding lunatic can send me to my grave??!!! No thanks…I’ll pass.
best get some covers for those .
I love this. I really do. Very awesome concept to decrease congestion in town.
My only suggestion is E-bikes. When I went to Denver for cannabis tourism, they also had electric scooters scattered around the city that was convenient. Office workers will be more likely to use this to make a quick errand if it comes with less sweating.
I currently change in and out of riding / work clothes, isn’t too much of a hassle but is certainly a barrier to everyone adopting the riding.
Make sure your life insurance is sufficient if you have dependents.
Also make sure to apply deodorant before riding!