ACTIVE ACCESS - Encouraging active travel for short trips to improve health and the local economy
Overview
Background & policy context:
Every day across Europe many short trips are made by car that could easily be made on foot or by bike instead – in the UK, for example, over 55% of trips between 1.5 and 3 km are made by car. Not only does this increase CO2 emissions, but it also contributes to
congestion and health problems caused by a lack of exercise. At the same time it has a negative impact on local economies as people turn away from their local businesses in favour of travelling by car to out of town retail parks. The ACTIVE ACCESS Project worked with changing the behaviour of travelers for these kind of short trips towards walking and cycling, instead of them using their cars.
Objectives:
The key aims of the project were to:
Reduce energy consumption by 10-20% in the activities carried out as part of the project;
Save energy in the order of 6.5 million litres of fuel;
Improve health and tackle obesity by increasing those taking regulat exercise in target populations by 10%;
Strenghten local economies by making residents aware of the facilities.
Methodology:
conducted by 11 project partners across 10 EU Countries. All these activities were centred around one or more of four approaches: walking and cycling to school, walking and cycling to work, walking and cycling to shops, walking and cycling for leisure.
Further, all the project partners took part in the following core activities:
1. They conducted walking audits with local stakeholders in each implementation area.
2. They collected and shared best practice examples in the field of walking and cycling to school, to work, to shops and for leisure.
3. They exchanged experiences first-hand between themselves in a process called "shadowing".
4. They took part in training and stakeholder involvement.
5. They disseminated activities and results through customised marketing materials and engagement of local and national press.
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