It seems going green isn’t really all that easy after all.

One of the largest engineering companies in Great Britain has ordered its’ staff off their bikes and motorcycles and back onto foot or cars. Unfortunately, the company in question, Jacobs Babtie, advises locals councils on sustainable transport projects, including ways to incentivise people to use two wheels instead of four.

In an email to all their employees, the company’s health and safety officer has told people to stick to four wheels or walking unless they are cycling away from roads such as on canal towpaths. The reason for this? To protect their employees against injury should a vehicle hit them.

Many long-time cyclists at the company are unhappy at the news and have said that the internal policy goes against the company’s environmental policy and responsibility and that this could have an effect on the contracts they have with environmentally friendly clients.

Transport for London are one of the company’s biggest clients. TfL has a target of getting 500% more people to cycle by 2025 when London hosts the opening races in the Tour de France. It is reported that TfL paid Jacobs £6 million ($12 million) last year for various transport projects including measuring the amount of people who had switched from driving to walking or cycling.

Jenny Jones, the green transport adviser to the Mayor of London, has advised TfL that they should cancel their contract with Jacobs on the back of their new policy stating she feels it is hypocritical for the company to try and promote cycling when they are banning their own staff using bicycles.

The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety has said that Jacobs should consider educated their employees on how to ride safely rather than banning them.

In London, TfL claims that bike journeys have grown by 83% since 2000 whilst the number of cyclists seriously injured or killed has fallen by 28% since the late 1990s. 146 cyclists were killed in Britain last year, compared with 203 in 1996. A US medical study has also shown that people who cycle regularly when they are over 35 live two years longer on average. The British Medical Association have also said that the health benefits of cycling far outweigh the associated risks.

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