Commuters Ditch Their Cars In Active Travel Challenge

Over 2,000 people from a range of workplaces across Northern Ireland ditched their cars in favour of a more active route to work in June.

Almost 33,000 additional journeys on public transport, foot and bikes were made during the month-long Active Travel Challenge, a combined effort to boost health and reduce traffic.

Staff from public and private sector organisations went head-to-head in the competition organised by Sustrans and Translink and funded by the Public Health Agency (PHA) and the Department for Infrastructure (DfI). This was one of the most successful challenges to date.

Belfast Lord Mayor Cllr John Finucane congratulated the winners and all those who took part in the regional Challenge at a recent awards ceremony at the Black Box in the city's Cathedral Quarter.

Allstate NI were champions in the largest workplace category, with Libraries NI and AECOM also winners in their workplace categories. Three employers were joint winners in the smallest workplace categories: Strabane Community Project, MCR Consulting Ltd and Clarus Financial Technology.

David Tumilty, Senior Health and Social Wellbeing Improvement Manager at the PHA said the successful challenge shows that more people are continuing to embrace active travel as part of their daily lives.

"It offers great examples of how easy it can be to fit walking, cycling and public transport into the working day and enjoy the health benefits of doing so," he added.

Civil servant Laura O'Hare, from the Department of Finance, logged the most overall journeys; while Jessica White from Jacobs Engineering took first place for the most public transport journeys.

Over 80 workplaces registered with a total of 2,120 involved, 70% of whom actively participated.

Of the 33,000 journeys made during the challenge, 10,000 of these were by public transport.

Translink Group Chief Executive Chris Conway said: "The Challenge has been a fantastic platform to showcase the economic, social, health and environmental benefits of public transport.

"Last year, 84.5million journeys were made on Translink services in Northern Ireland - the highest level in 20 years and an increase of over 3m compared to the previous year, removing over 2.8 million car journeys from local roads.

"This initiative is an effective way to attract even more people on board public transport. Congratulations to everyone who took part!"

Lynda Hurley, Head of Promotion and Outreach Branch, Department for Infrastructure, said: "We know that if more people consider making sustainable travel choices it will help to reduce congestion on our roads, protect the environment and, importantly, lead to improved physical and mental well-being.

"We will continue to work collaboratively with others to increase the number of people using sustainable methods of travel."

Ashley Hunter, Sustrans Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland Director added: "Given the serious amount of congestion we experience in our urban areas across Northern Ireland it is important to do all we can to encourage people to travel more sustainably.

"I'm personally delighted with the uptake of the Challenge this year and we hope to continue this successful partnership."



(JG/MH)