The episode in detail
Stéphanie Roussel is an environmental adviser and mobility manager at UCB, on the Braine-l’Alleud site, the Belgian pharmaceutical group’s largest production site, where close to 3,000 people work. A geographer by training and an environmental adviser since 2015, she added the Mobility Manager qualification in 2016 or 2017. Her job is to support a change in behaviour, and workplace cycling has been her observation ground for ten years.
Workplace cycling in figures: 2% in winter, 4% in summer
The share of staff who come by bike moves between 2% in winter and 4% in summer. The figure is modest, she says so herself, but it holds steady. What she points to is the quality of the roads leading to the site, which she describes as particularly awkward.
“What my cyclists tell me is that the last kilometre before arriving is the worst.”
Holes in the road surface, a closed road, the feeling of being about to get knocked over: when that last kilometre goes badly, the whole journey is put off. In the other direction, one very concrete reason pushes people towards the bike. Headcount is rising fast, the car park is saturated, and coming by bike avoids driving round for half an hour only to end up without a space. She sees that as an extra motivation.
A 250 euro bonus for 80 days of cycling
UCB pays an annual bonus to anyone who goes past 80 days of bike commutes over the year, set at 250 euros in 2025. It comes on top of the statutory mileage allowance. The threshold counts days, not journeys, and it relates to about 220 working days a year, so close to two cycling days a week.
That calibration is the clever part of the scheme. It is not reserved for daily cyclists: someone who rides mostly between March and October can reach it too. Stéphanie Roussel finds that the financial argument works, people have told her it was what helped them come by bike, because it changes the salary at the end of the month.
What workplace cycling asks for in the way of facilities
The site has showers and lockers. The team is looking at heated lockers to dry clothes and socks after rain, with a test phase first rather than a general rollout straight away. On top of that come tools for small repairs, a saddle to tighten or an adjustment to make on the spot, pumps to reinflate before setting off again, and charging points for electric bikes.
One gap remains, identified during the conversation: several colleagues who are keen on bike mechanics help the others out, but they are not publicly identified. You have to go through her to know who to call.
Bike ambassadors, the scheme that unblocks things
The company has trained bike ambassadors. The training is getting old and needs redoing, which has thinned out the ambassador population, but the principle is among the things that work well in her view. An ambassador shows the route a first time, which counts for a lot when the access to a former railway line is badly signposted. They also ride with the beginner in traffic, to teach them how to position themselves, how to overtake a car, how to check they have been seen, how to handle a junction or a roundabout.
She put out a very simple call for volunteers: who is willing to share their route and their skills with colleagues. The volunteers are listed, and their routes visible. Seeing on a map that someone comes from the same area is sometimes enough, without even contacting them.
The discussion group as an alert service
The internal social network hosts a discussion group for cyclists. People flag a hole in the road surface, an impassable stretch, a tree down across the path. Stéphanie Roussel sometimes calls the local council to have the obstacle cleared, and sometimes it is a colleague who has been past who offers the detour they have tested, with its drawbacks.
She gives the underlying reason: she does not take every road that leads to the company, only her own. Knowledge of the ground is necessarily collective.
The barrier is mental before it is material
“We find it easier to run on automatic things than on new things we are learning.”
She sets out the cognitive cost of a first journey, and that is the most useful part of her analysis. Where to park, how to get through, how to lock the bike, which pocket to put the keys in, remembering the badge, having gloves in winter or paying for it with a bad experience. Once the routine is in place, none of that gets thought about any more. The second barrier is psychological: many people tell themselves the full journey is impossible, without considering doing only part of it by bike, with a stretch by car or by train.
She also sets out the limit of her own power to act. When someone tells her they are afraid of dying at a specific spot, she can suggest a safer route, or starting the journey further along by doing part of it by car, but the infrastructure is not down to her.
The station shuttle, car sharing and the guaranteed ride home
The site is 4 kilometres from Braine-l’Alleud station, which used to rule out the train. A shuttle was set up a few years ago, and the number of commuters has risen sharply, from Brussels in particular. Some combine the two with the seasons, bike in summer, train and shuttle in winter. Car sharing is encouraged through daily bonuses and a matching app.
There is also the guaranteed ride home, the scheme that promises a car-share passenger a way back if their driver has to leave in an emergency.
“We have a guaranteed ride home and in fact, from experience, it is almost never used, because it is more of a psychological barrier.”
At UCB, the rule is to look for another colleague first, then to take a taxi reimbursed through expenses, with no contract with a company. One colleague needed it the day his car-share driver left for a birth, and three requests were enough to find a solution.
Identifying with someone like you
“As a woman, sometimes when I see men who come by bike every day and do, I don’t know, 30 km there and 30 km back, I think ooh, that doesn’t look very accessible to me.”
Seeing other women in her age bracket changes the calculation. That is also what the cyclists’ breakfasts during mobility week are for, and the lunchtime walks with a picnic in a nearby wood, which get people back on a bike who had not ridden for ten or fifteen years. Bike tests, cargo, longtail or electric mountain bike, and group purchases play the same role in lifting barriers.
“I think having someone dedicated to these mobility questions matters, because it means they get thought about specifically. If it is nobody’s job, nobody knows to think about it.”
Her advice to anyone hesitating comes in few words: try it on a day when conditions are good, get a colleague to come along if possible, and do not give up after a single failed attempt. Once a week is already a change.
