Unemployment - Transport - Cycling

[PedallingNowhereSlowly]

I see anti-obesity drugs are to be prescribed to those out of work, in order to encourage them into work - on a trial basis.
I also think that transport can be a real problem, when it comes to taking on potential work. Especially with the mindset people have around car dependency.

I'm wondering if loaning (or even giving) people bikes, locks, helmets and lights when they receive local offers of employment would be feasible, and beneficial to society as a whole.

We already have social prescribing of exercise in some areas, including cycling and loan bikes.

Sharing for comment on the feasibility/practicality - not the political aspects.

 

[Drago]

I know there will be some medical cases where such a tretment might be appropriate, but for the clear majority I cant help thinking it would be more cost efficient and healthier to promote eating less and exercising more.

 

[mjr]

I know there will be some medical cases where such a tretment might be appropriate, but for the clear majority I cant help thinking it would be more cost efficient and healthier to promote eating less and exercising more.

The problem isn't lack of "promotion" of doing the right things. It's more the promotion and provision of harmful things. You ain't gonna convince people to swim if you've filled the river with sharks and you provide a bridge, even if the bridge kills everyone (including its users) slowly and randomly. We need to remove the sharks and/or build non-toxic bridges, as well as promote/educate.

Edit: reading that back, it's a bit harsh. You're far from the only person to think promoting good things would help, but we've done that soooo many times with basically negligible results. It's easy for gov to approve an ad budget and then do nothing to improve the "product" being advertised. Meanwhile, the harmful things have bigger ad budgets and smaller morals, with most of the harm off in the future and able to be dismissed as not their fault, like their victims aren't fat because they got couriered takeaways but they got them too often and should only have had the one they advertised, not one of each.

 

[Drago]

And that is indeed the conundrum.

But for the most part, those that my imaginary health service/government would encourage to cycle are indeed the sharks themselves.

The problem will resolve itself when the sharks are tempted out of their Murder-Pollution boxes. How to tempt them is the thing, because most of the objections we hear are weak excuses rather than real barriers.

 

[mjr]

Of course, it's also easier for government to fund mass medication of the population than actually remedy/reverse past failures than have led us down this path. Before funding ozempic for someone, should those able enough have to walk or cycle a bit for a while and submit tracker logs (possibly on a loaned tracker)?

 

[mjr]

We already have social prescribing of exercise in some areas, including cycling and loan bikes.

Do we? Really? Where? Does it work? I could do with some good news stories because all this "inject the unemployed" stuff is giving me some very dark vibes, from Logan's Run to Mengele.

 

[classic33]

Do we? Really? Where? Does it work? I could do with some good news stories because all this "inject the unemployed" stuff is giving me some very dark vibes, from Logan's Run to Mengele.

It was tried locally to me.

 

[mjr]

It was tried locally to me.

Did it work? I suspect not because you don't write in the present tense that it's still done near you 🙁

 

[PedallingNowhereSlowly]

What proportion of the long-term unemployed have access to a car?
My thinking was more around opening opportunities to people that don't currently have them.

And of course, this precludes the people who are long-term unemployed either due to long term health problems or a long wait for treatment.

RE: social prescribing
https://road.cc/content/news/increased-funding-nhs-trial-prescribe-cycling-302419

I know my female parental unit's GP surgery has a social prescriber. I'm not sure whether she socially prescribes exercise and equally I don't know whether that extends to the loan of bicycles.

 

[Big John]

You can lead a horse to water but it doesn't mean it'll drink. Give folks a bike and it'll go in the shed never to see the light of day. Nice idea but only for those who can be arsed to go out in all weathers. I wish I had more faith in humanity but I don't. I rode my bike to work for 35 years and even me, a crazy cyclist, thought about jacking it in when it got cold and increasingly wet.

 

[Dadam]

Social prescribing isn't a new thing, it's not just a few short lived trials. It's national policy and standard practice
https://www.england.nhs.uk/personalisedcare/social-prescribing
Evidence base for social prescribing of physical activity (though it doesn't mention cycling) https://socialprescribingacademy.org.uk/read-the-evidence/physical-activity/

 

[Dadam]

You can lead a horse to water but it doesn't mean it'll drink. Give folks a bike and it'll go in the shed never to see the light of day. Nice idea but only for those who can be arsed to go out in all weathers. I wish I had more faith in humanity but I don't. I rode my bike to work for 35 years and even me, a crazy cyclist, thought about jacking it in when it got cold and increasingly wet.

Surely even if they only go out in good weather that's a win

 

[Kingfisher101]

They cant even get enough of those drugs for people with diabetes that desperately need it so I cant see the unemployed getting it somehow. The Government just talks utter rubbish. Its just bull and deflection.
You also wont get more people cycling, Its hard going and there's problems everywhere with ignorant drivers and with the cycle lanes being blocked etc. People not used to all this just wont be able to cope with it.

 

[raleighnut]

Factor in that most new 'Jobs' are Agency employment and they don't give a feck, I worked for agencies for several years and rarely had a job offer that was less than a 7 mile commute and frequently offered work in Hinkley or Loughborough meaning a 12-15 mile commute then a 12 hr shift followed by a ride home. I declined those jobs which meant the Agency would not offer me work but I had a trick up my sleeve, a couple of companies would need someone to cover holidays or extra work so would ask for me by name as they needed someone who could walk in and do the job with no additional 'training', one a printers where I was known as 'Supersub' the other made plastic takeaway containers and were owned by a Chinese fella and a Sikh guy I was the only white guy who worked there but it was good as the Indian fellas would take their holidays in 20 day (month) lots to visit family in India so I was pretty much guaranteed 6 months work a year (2 workers on 8 hr shifts x3 shifts)
Even better when I found out there was a thing called 'Rapid Re-sign' at the dole so I'd sign off saying I'd got a 4wk contract then sign back on at the end of that and be able to know I had another one come up in a few weeks, caused a few problems with the printers though as often they'd want me but I was working elsewhere but if I was free I'd walk in there to a "Thank Feck it's you" as apparently they'd had people in who had no aptitude for the work,

 

[fossyant]

They cant even get enough of those drugs for people with diabetes that desperately need it so I cant see the unemployed getting it somehow. The Government just talks utter rubbish. Its just bull and deflection.
You also wont get more people cycling, Its hard going and there's problems everywhere with ignorant drivers and with the cycle lanes being blocked etc. People not used to all this just wont be able to cope with it.

And Novo Nordisk are prioritising the 'pens' for the weight loss drug rather than insulin, by restricting use in some countries