The School of Medicine has partnered with Peloton Liverpool Cooperative to provide student doctors with affordable, active and sustainable transport to and from clinical placement, with 50 bikes snapped up so far this year.
The scheme is currently open to students in years 3,4 and 5 and provides each participating student with a refurbished bike along with essential accessories including a lock, lights, and helmet. What’s more, Peloton also take care of maintenance and repairs, as well as offering extra benefits to members like workshops and cycling events.
Vice Dean of Student Experience and Risk Dr Iain Young shares more on the popular initiative.
We won funding from the 21-22 Sustainability Fund to look at the environmental cost of students travelling to placements. Placements are of course a requirement, and we spread widely across the North West from North Wales to Southport, Wirral to Warrington.
Around 1200 students travel to placements each day for 28 to 32 weeks a year. More than half of these placement sites are over 10 miles away and, at the time of our study, many students travelled alone by car. This could amount to emissions of hundreds of tonnes of carbon equivalent.
The funding allowed us to bring on Phoebe Archer as a researcher to support the project. After surveying students to determine their travel choices, we looked for enablers to affect a change towards more sustainable travel choices and reduce the School’s and the University’s carbon footprint.
One of these was to promote active travel such as cycling however, many students didn’t have access to a bike or the funds to buy one. This sparked the idea of a bike loan scheme.
The scheme got going last year with the first 20 bikes on the road and this year, with additional funding, we have been able to work with Peloton to expand both the number of bikes and service provided.
The ethos of the bike share scheme is really all about -
Promoting Self-Care: Instilling the power of the bicycle in supporting self-care, psychological, and physical wellbeing among tomorrow’s health professionals.
Sustainability: Supporting sustainable transportation habits that promote environmental health.
Public Health Advocacy: Encouraging future health professionals to incorporate cycling and community cycling clubs into their public health strategies, including social prescribing.
Community Building: Creating a supportive community of health students who share a commitment to active transportation and personal wellness.”
Peloton founder Danny Robinson is enthusiastic about the impact of the scheme -
"Fundamentally, Peloton seeks to address health inequalities across the region using the bicycle through the creation of sustainable projects. Medipedal works by offering a solution for health undergraduates’ travel requirements.
However, the real bonus is highlighting to tomorrow's health professionals the power of the bicycle to enhance their own health, both psychologically and physiologically, which will hopefully influence their practise and treatment for those they serve.
The scheme also feeds into Liverpool city region's ambition for active travel by the creation of safer, more joined up cycling infrastructure, particularly those in close proximity to the university."
Year 5 Student Doctor Alana Hussain has been putting her bike to good use,
“Thank you very much for the loan of a bike. I have been using it to cycle into the library and cycle to Sefton and Lark Lane with my friends at the weekends. It is a much faster commute to university than walking and reduces my need to drive to places that are close by.”
Stay tuned for updates on the scheme as it continues to go from strength to strength!