People Urged To Leave Their Car At Home In Active Travel Challenge

People across Northern Ireland are being encouraged to leave their car at home in June and take part in the 2024 Active Travel Challenge in a bid to be more sustainable, save money and to boost physical and mental health.

From a trip to the shop to the commute to work, the Active Travel Challenge encourages the everyone to switch up their usual routine and try walking, cycling or taking public transport as a cleaner, greener way to travel.

Last year, as well as saving money and helping improve their physical and mental health and wellbeing by choosing active journeys, more than 9,000kg of CO2 was saved thanks to those who took part in the challenge, demonstrating the real impact sustainable travel can make in improving air quality and the local environment.

The Active Travel Challenge is a joint initiative between Sustrans, Translink, the Department for Infrastructure, Public Health Agency (PHA), Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, and Belfast City Council. The Challenge is open to individuals and organisations of any size across Northern Ireland to take part and help create habits for a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable lifestyle.  It's also a great way to stimulate a little friendly competition between organisations and indeed amongst teams and colleagues throughout June. The joint initiative is free to sign up to and runs for the entire month of June. Participants log their ‘active travel' journeys on the online platform (link) for a chance to win a range of prizes, including vouchers, travel tickets, gym passes and rewards with national and regional retailers.

 Claire Pollock, Head of Sustrans Northern Ireland said: "The Active Travel Challenge is back for another amazing year. I would encourage everyone to have a go and build active travel into their daily routines as a really simple way to make a positive contribution towards reducing their carbon footprint. If you're thinking about cycling but haven't been on a bike in years, there's lots of helpful advice online to get you started and you'll soon be reaping the physical, mental and economic benefits."

Commenting on this year's Active Travel Challenge, Ian Campbell added: "The Active Travel Challenge is a great way to make small changes which make a big difference in creating a more sustainable lifestyle. Taking the bus or train, utilising park and ride facilities or using bike storage at our stations, are all practical ways to introduce more active travel and reduce the stress and cost of the daily commute, whilst also having a positive impact on the environment."

To find out more and get involved in this year's Active Travel Challenge go to atc.getmeactive.org.uk/.