Overview
Over the last decades our expectations of mobility has changed considerably, with a tremendous rise in automotive traffic. Most of us can get to different places very easily and comfortably. But this development has led to a massive increase in traffic problems. These can only be solved if we learn to think in ways that consider the interaction between car traffic, public transport as well as bicycle and walking traffic.
Kids and young people can serve as a shining example for intermodal mobility behaviour.
The CONNECT Project worked towards achieving the following objectives:
To inform children, students and parents of the benefits of travelling to and from school using sustainable modes such as walking, cycling, public transport, school bus transport or carpooling;
To teach children to travel safely to school by increasing their knowledge and skills as well as increasing their visibility in the public domain;
To encourage children, pupils and parents to travel to school using sustainable modes.
The main drivers of the CONNECT project were: implementation, dissemination and ‘learning by doing’. Two separate campaigns were designed, one aimed at primary schools (Traffic Snake Game) and the other targeted at secondary schools (ECO-TRIP). Both campaigns aimed to encourage children and young people to travel to school using sustainable methods of travel (i.e. walking, cycling, public transport, car sharing and ‘park and walk’).
Results
The results of the monitoring exercise showed that CONNECT successfully increased the use of sustainable transport modes and reduced the emissions of CO2 over the three years of the project. CONNECT reached almost 85,000 pupils and over 5,000 teachers from more than 350 schools in nine countries. Collectively they saved over 1,000,000 car kilometres.
CONNECT showed that great results can be achieved through co-operation and networking.
Strategy targets
This project contributed towards promoting more sustainable development.
Policy objectives
Environmental policies.