Employee benefit bike users have been found to cycle over five times more than average Finns.
The finding comes from Finnish employee bike benefit platform Vapaus who surveyed nearly 4,600 Finns in its ‘State of the Benefit Bikes in Finland 2024’ study.
Benefit bike users cover an average distance of 1,217 kilometres per year compared with the annual Finn’s 234 kilometre average as measured by The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency.
“In Finland, the growth of employee benefit bikes has been fast during the last couple of years and there are already more benefit bike users than company car users,” CEO of Vapaus Tero Era told Zag Daily. “The study results show that benefit bikes lower the threshold for everyday cycling.”
Further findings
Vapaus’ study indicates that acquiring a benefit bike motivates all people to cycle more, not just those who already cycle a lot.
43% of respondents reported a significant increase in cycling after acquiring a benefit bike, and 36% estimated a slight increase in their cycling activity. This is a total 79% of respondents who said they increased their cycling after getting an employee benefit bike.
The study also found that as bike usage goes up, car usage goes down.
“Of all benefit bike respondents who drive a car 46% say that they have reduced their car usage since acquiring a benefit bicycle. Accordingly, 56% of respondents reported an improvement in their physical health and fitness after adopting a benefit bike,” said Era.
The reduction in car usage means an average reduction in distance of 42 kilometres travelled per week. If this were to be generalised to all 80,000 Finnish benefit bike users then there would be a decrease of 74 million kilometres travelled by private car per year.
“The growth of benefit bikes indicates that people want to take care of their well-being, health, and the environment.”
Where and why
Outdoor activities and exploring nature were cited as the primary reasons for using benefit bikes, with 74% of respondents mentioning this. This is closely followed by 73% of respondents who said they use benefit bikes to improve their physical fitness.
41% of respondents cycle their commute to work using a benefit bike daily or several times a week, and 78% do this for health reasons, 62% for enjoyment, and 45% for financial reasons.
