by Laerke Christensen

The Danish Cyclists Federation has made four suggestions to the government to improve conditions for cyclists, including a suggestion that people who cycle more than 3km (1.8 miles) to works should be eligible for tax credits.

We asked a Danish and an English cyclist what they made of the suggestions:

Niels Christensen, 59, is a Principal Test Engineer at software company Milestone. He lives in the Copenhagen suburb of Ballerup and cycles to work 5 days a week. He’s cycled to work his entire working life and currently reaches about 28km (17 miles) per day.

Like many Danes, Niels cycles because it saves him time and hassle. By car, his commute takes about 20 minutes but sends him through rush hour traffic. Public transportation takes around an hour – but by bike, his commute is done in about 35 minutes.

He’s positive about the DCF’s suggestion but sceptical about how it might work in practice:

“Money always works to some extent.”

“But one problem I foresee is how people are supposed to document that they biked and did not drive by car or used public transportation.”

Hang Po Tang, 53, lives in Epsom near London. He cycles 6 days a week to his job and back – making it a round trip of 12 miles. Mr Tang also lists exercise as the main benefit and reason why he cycles, as he wants to stay healthy. He thinks enough is being done to encourage people to cycle to work – and that a financial carrot wouldn’t do much to motivate more people to do so.

“I don’t think tax credits will encourage you to cycle to work. Either you want to or you don’t. A system like that could also be open for fraudulent abuse.”

“There is enough encouragement to get more people cycling to work with lots of cycling lanes even though some lanes are not well designed.”