West Yorkshire is to give free bikes to job starters who are coming off the dole and have no other way to get to work. This comes from a £2.8 million grant from the government. However, most of the money will be spent on a public tranposrt card.
I am in favour of these schemes, quite often one of the factors stopping people from working is that it is very difficult for them to actually get to work on time. Especiially outside of urban sprawls where the public transport is often not frequent enough meaning that you have to travel by car, essentially trapping the non-motorist in their homes and on dole.
Where this has been trialled there has been fairly positive responses with the receipriants using the bikes to get to work and not just quitting the job and selling it on fleebay for a quick turn around. Though they are small scale trials so efficacy statistics are essentially meaningless.
These schemes are quite neat as they have cheap bikes and re-cycled cycles. Often constructed by volunteers who themselves can end up with an apprentiship in bike building, not the most universal skill but Halfords for instance are looking to hire an additional 500 bike mechanics
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-27407345[/url]