Cycle response unit paramedics

Cycle responders from the ambulance, police and fire and rescue service in the US have been established for over two decades (Becker, 2008). The International Police Mountain Bike Association (IPMBA) was founded in 1992, providing the foundations for uniformed services responding to calls and patrolling on bicycles in the US (IPMBA, 2012). In the year 2000, in the UK, the London Ambulance Service (LAS) developed a pilot trial of responding on bicycles, led by LAS emergency medical technician and Team GB BMX World Champion, Tom Lynch MBE which later was developed into the Cycle Response Unit (CRU), as it is known today (Figure 1). Lynch independently set up the CRU alone and joined with IPMBA in 2004 to develop an affiliated course to equip emergency services personnel with the skills to respond and patrol safely and efficiently, this being known as public safety cycling (PSC) (Figure 2), which was founded in 2005 (IPMBA, 2012).