SASmob at the Environmental Management Company: New Scooter Shelter at the HQ
Seven years ago, a huge bike shelter was built by Szegedi Környezetgazdálkodási Nonprofit Kft. in Városgazda sor, at the HQ – but the shelter has by now become too small for the ever increasing user number. A fourteen-metre open-air scooter shelter has, therefore, recently been built in the framework of the SASmob Project, next to the main entrance to the car park. However, this is not the only scooter shelter constructed: a seven-metre-long roofed facility was also built at the Regional Landfill Site, in Sándorfalvi út. Ganyecz, Viktor, the company’s SASmob Applications Manager, said there had been no roofed vehicle shelter before at this remote site.
– We are organising breakfasts for bike users until the beginning of the summer, to motivate our colleagues to use the bicycle. Besides offering breakfast, we will also hand out gifts – though to get the gift, one must take part in a simple game: fill in a short questionnaire. Our company is also trying to motivate employees by granting them one day of extra holiday if they come to work on at least 125 days in a given year.
PR and Marketing Officer Farkas, Péter added that the bike shelter also offers twenty company bikes for rent, which employees may use without limitation, only a receipt form to be filled in. Many use these bikes to travel to the city centre during the day to run official errands, instead of driving there by car.
Ganyecz, Viktor also said that their company may be affected not only by the spreading of the cycling culture but also by the community transport development projects. According to plans, one stop of tram line 3 may be moved somewhat closer to Városgazda sor, where their HQ is located, and there is also an initiative for one of the city’s bus services to make a detour and take employees to the main entrance.
The Environmental Management Company also plans to introduce some kind of carpooling scheme.
In 2019, Szeged came second in the “Bike To Work!” campaign, after Budapest. This achievement is a significant improvement as Szeged was only in the third place in 2018. This success is partly owing to the fact that, this year, the most intensive period of the SASMob campaign was the month of May.