Stagecoach London is to roll out cycle awareness training to around 1,500 of its staff in the capital to help them understand the vulnerability of cyclists on the road and reduce collisions. The news comes in a week in which it was revealed that on average, an incident involving a bus and a cyclist takes place every two days.

The programme has been developed in partnership with Cycle Training UK, reports Employee Benefits.co.uk, and will be rolled out starting at the company’s West Ham depot this summer.

Although formulated in-house by Stagecoach London, it ties in with the Safe Urban Driving Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) course drawn up in 2011 by Transport for London (TfL).

Malcolm Crichard, training officer, commented: “Stagecoach London is keen to ensure that all its drivers are cycle aware. We wanted to explore this type of training and for it to be tailored to our own requirements.

“To that end, we worked with Cycle Training UK to design and develop an on-road awareness programme for us, delivered by our own training team.”

Stagecoach made a cycle-to-work scheme available to its staff last year to encourage them to ride to work, with 1,500 staff signing up during the first nine months of the year, buying bikes worth a combined total of more than £1 million.

Stagecoach bus drivers in the North East of England also attended a workshop on cycle awareness hosted by Newcastle Cycling Campaign last year.

Steve Edgell, Cycle Solutions’ sales and operations director, said: “With so many Stagecoach employees taking up cycling themselves, there is inevitably going to be more attention paid by bus drivers to cyclists using busy urban roads.

He added: “By getting out among the traffic, under the careful guidance of a qualified trainer, bus drivers will see for themselves the challenges faced by cyclists when they compete with larger vehicles for space and respect on the roads.”

Stagecoach London has 5,000 employees and operates bus routes under contract to Transport for London from garages in East and South East London.

