When your paternity leave is coming to an end, you’ll be faced with myriad of feelings – excitement, worry, fear and anticipation. You know that it is necessary to go back to work, especially when figures from the Money Advice Service claim the average cost of putting a kid through nursery in London is £248 a week, but managing the transition can be difficult.
One thing you’ll need to consider is how you’ll get to the office. If you share a car with the wife then she may need access to it during the day to take care of your little one and even if you are lucky enough to have separate cars who really wants to spend half their morning stuck in traffic jams instead of watching their little one play?
Instead of hopping behind the wheel of your car, cycling to work could offer you everything you need in a daily commute. It’ll cost you a lot less in travel costs if you cycle to work but you’ll also be able to get fit, invigorate yourself for the day ahead and bypass all of that troublesome traffic on the roads.
The actual amount of money you will save personally can be calculated using a nifty little tool: Cycle To Work Calculator.
This says that for a bike that costs just £500 you will save £1,112 on a commute to work that takes 45 minutes and costs £4.80per day in London. On top of these financial savings you’ll also be doing no end of good for the environment by reducing carbon emissions and keeping at least one car off of the roads during peak time.
The UK Government really want to reduce our carbon footprint by reducing the number of cars on the road and have even teamed up with a number of organisations like Halfords to help make cycling to work an easier reality for today’s workers. These partnerships offers schemes to employers of businesses who have signed up and are designed to encourage workers to hop on their bike and get to work the smart way.
The scheme with Halfords, for example, promises savings of up to 42% on new cycling and safety equipment which you can even pay off monthly so that your family budgets aren’t left out of synch by your effort to go green.
Once you start cycling to work you’ll immediately notice the benefits. No longer will you arrive at your desk stressed before you’ve even started on your daily tasks and no longer will you curse the car’s ahead for making you late home so that you miss baby’s bath time yet again. Instead, you’ll feel fresh and healthy when you arrive at work and make it home in good time as you bypass rush hour. Bliss!
