"Over 415 individuals and 17 local organisations registered and participated in the Bike2Work Campaign making this initiative, one of the most successful campaigns managed by Paragon Europe to date."

This was announced by Edwin Ward, Chairman of Paragon Europe during a media event to announce Joanne Busuttil as the winner of the E-Bike as first prize and MAPFRE MSV Life as the winning participating company. MAPFRE MSV Life was awarded with a bike rack.

Expressing his satisfaction at the successful turnout throughout this campaign, Edwin Ward explained how the two-week Bike2Work campaign hosted by Paragon Europe between the 17th and the 30th October through the EU Intelligent Energy Programme, encouraged individuals to opt to commute to work with their bicycle. All participating individuals had to register by visiting www.bike2workmalta.eu to enter the chance of winning an E-Bike as the final prize. Companies and organisations could also register to participate by encouraging their employees through incentives and events and thus, stand the chance of winning a prize too.

Bike2Work is supported by project leader - the European Cyclists' Federation (ECF): the umbrella association of European bicycle organisations. ECF is committed to being a resource centre for campaigns by giving long-term support and coordinating knowledge dissemination. Bike2Work has 12 Partners from across Europe all with different experiences in bike-to-work campaigning. This Pan-European approach offers great opportunities for know-how transfer and the combining of successful campaign elements from different campaigns. Bike2Work celebrates this diversity and the knowledge-exchange it encourages because it leads to more efficient and more successful campaigns.

"More than the fact that the campaign managed to achieve its targets, the Bike2Work Campaign stirred a national debate on how important and urgent it is to start considering alternative modes of transport to curb the growing traffic and congestion problems. Traffic congestion and pollution have become a national problem and yet, although important solutions are possible, very few seem ready to start doing something about it," said Edwin Ward.

"Through our two-week Bike2Work campaign, Paragon Europe is proud to have done its part and introduced cycling as a doable transport alternative. We managed to raise awareness about the four main benefits of choosing to cycle namely: reducing pollution caused by cars, contributing to a reduction in traffic, increasing physical activity and encouraging the creation of a wider mobility infrastructure," added Edwin Ward who also thanked MAGRI CYCLES as the local sponsor of the campaign.

Joanne Busuttil, winner of the eBike said "I have always been into cycling but these last 2 years I dedicated more time on the bike both for training and for commuting. I work in Valletta and considering the big parking problem, I normally come to work by bus or bike. It is only a 10k ride from home to work and it takes just 25 mins by bike as oppose to at least 45 mins by bus. Our company, John Ripard & Son Shipping (JRS) supports the idea of cycling to work and have installed showers and allocated space to keep the bikes at a safe place. As part of the commitment towards this, JRS also helped to start up a new on-demand delivery company called 'Fetch It', whose main focus is on delivering by bicycles."

Norman Mifsud, Chief Officer, HR & Corporate Services of MAPFRE MSV Life expressed his satisfaction that his company was declared the winning company of the Bike2Work campaign.

To encourage employees to participate, the company promoted the campaign amongst all its staff, allowed employees to work in jeans and an MSV T-shirt on the day they commuted to work with their bike and were also allowed to use the company garage to park their bikes. Our work will not stop here. In fact, plans are in place for us to refurbish our offices and include showers, lockers, a dedicated sizeable "Bike Area" in the garage with all the needed facilities and a gym corner. Through these new incentives, we hope to see more employees using alternative transport other than their cars to get to work," concluded Norman Mifsud.