High flying city executives who demand that employers provide suitable cycle facilities at places of work are helping to change the face of cycling in London, a Transport Minister has claimed.

Norman Baker told a conference last week: “People being headhunted in the City are now saying to potential employers: ‘I might come and work for you, but what are your cycling facilities like?’

“The fact that people on very high incomes are now demanding proper cycling facilities such as secure parking and showers before accepting a job is a very useful development. It is helping to shift the mindset that riding a bike is a minority pursuit for the less well off.”

The Minister added that there had been a 20% increase in cycle trips in the UK since 2001 and the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Tour de France have helped to raise the profile of cycling. But 50% of car journeys, he continued, are still between one and five miles and 16% of those are less than two miles. “If you want to get round city centres like London it is crackers to get in a car,” Mr Baker said. “Being stuck in a traffic jam seems to me to not be a very good use of anyone’s time. You can get from A to B in a far more predictable journey time if you walk or cycle or use public transport for longer distances.”

Mr Baker went on to say that Government is spending £30M to improve dangerous junctions for cyclists, of which half will be spent in London. “But I don’t want to give the impression that cycling is not safe. What is not safe is spending your life in a car and not getting fit and shortening your life because you make yourself more vulnerable to heart conditions from living a sedentary lifestyle. It is so much more safe to cycle than not.”

Norman Baker was speaking at the ‘Love London Go Dutch’ conference which looked to see if the UK could emulate Holland’s love of the bicycle.