What 15 years of The Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel means for active travel
OPINION: A whopping 15.9 million active travel journeys have been made over 15 years of the Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel. Chris Bennett – Head of Behaviour Change for the charity Sustrans – discusses what the initiative has uncovered about the demand for active travel…
Fifteen years ago, Sustrans – the UK’s largest walking and cycling charity – created the Big Walk and Wheel competition as a chance for pupils and families to take up active travel on their journey to school.
The event is a two week, UK-wide interschool competition to see which can get the most pupils travelling s to school by walking, wheeling, scooting and cycling.
Taking place this year from 11-22 March, the challenge continues to provide the chance for a fun school commute, but now its role extends further.
How active travel benefits the UK
Sustrans research found the benefit of active travel to the UK economy in 2021 was an estimated £36.5 billion, whilst also providing benefits for people’s health and our environment.
This benefits everyone, but children stand to gain the most.
Children are in a position today to develop active travel habits to take with them to adulthood and influence the world they will inherit.
They will be leading tomorrow’s economy and dealing with the realities of climate change. They must be encouraged to travel actively as they grow older, and this is best done by demonstration.
The Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel
This is where active travel events, such as the Big Walk and Wheel, and the FRideDays bike buses, come in – with the ambition of making cycling fun – a chance to access the adventure that a simple journey to school can be.
Travelling actively to school achieves this to no end – that’s what the Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel provides, and why it is in-demand.
200 trips to the moon
This year, the Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel is celebrating its 15th anniversary, and the statistics are incredible.
Since data collection for the challenge began in 2011, 23.9 million miles (1) have been travelled by pupils taking over 15.9 million active travel journeys to school.
That’s around 200 trips to the moon, or over 1,900 journeys around the Earth (1). By reducing car journeys to and from school by 31.7 million, 12,700 tonnes of CO2 were stopped from polluting the air on the school run (1).
During last year’s challenge, just under 2.7million active journeys took place, saving an estimated 1,890 tonnes of CO2 emissions if the journeys logged had otherwise been made by car (2).
What this tells us about demand
We know that people want to walk, wheel and cycle. 15 successful years of Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel shows that given an opportunity – people will take it, as demonstrated by the nearly one million pupils who registered to take part last year.
The event hasn’t just been 15 years of active travel. It has been 15 years of families saving money; emissions being cut around schools; and setting fun, safe and healthy active travel habits on the way to school.
This shows the importance of initiatives like Big Walk and Wheel for the positive potential for health, air quality, the economy, and long-term prospects for the cycling sector.
We need these vital behaviour changing initiatives which demonstrate how switching from car-use to walking, wheeling and cycling can be easy and fun.
If participants of the Big Walk and Wheel can achieve 200 trips to the moon in less than 15 years – surely, we can all work together to help make active travel a substantial part of their adult lives, living in the kind of world they’ll want to inherit?
Collaboration is key
Demonstration is crucial for the future of the active travel sector and, as such, the priorities of UK. But showing children and families that active travel can fit into their every day lives must be done by all who are in a position to do so.
Schwalbe Tyres UK understands this, which is why they have again sponsored the Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel for 2024. Sector-leaders, like Schwalbe in the cycle and wheelchair tyre manufacturing industry, are best placed to collaborate with active travel charities, schools, parents, local authorities and national governments to create the change that is needed.
Providing active travel opens up opportunities for all people to socialise, attend school, or pursue work, as well as helping to meet the UK government’s promise for 50% of urban journeys to be walked or cycled by 2030. Achieving this is not down to one solution; it will be down to the efforts of all those in a position to contribute.
The Big Walk and Wheel is the best example of how, when working together – we can make it easier for children to walk, wheel and cycle and set the habits they deserve to enjoy. So, here’s to the next 15 years!
Chris Bennett – Head of Behaviour Change for the charity Sustrans.
- These figures are an estimation only, and depend on a number of assumptions and national or regional averages.
- Based on approximations of assumed modes of travel.
