• Access to information gets the whole family travelling actively

     

     
    Partner: Sustrans
    Scheme: TravelSmart
    Location: Watford     

     

    Neil McCarthy in West Watford would advise anyone to take part in the TravelSmart programme. Already an occasional cyclist and walker, he found that the information and support offered by the programme provided new travel opportunities for him and his family.

     
    TravelSmart works with households offering tailor-made information and support, enabling people to walk, cycle and use public transport more often. Neil became involved in the project after he heard about it through family and friends. “Shortly afterwards I bumped into Louise, one of the TravelSmart canvassers who’d been talking to a few of my neighbours door-to-door. She told me who she was and we got chatting from there.”
     
    Neil also requested a home visit from a TravelSmart advisor, an opportunity for households to receive further support and expert advice on changing their travel habits. “It gave me a wider picture of
    what’s available. She was friendly, down to earth and relaxed.” Neil was surprised by the amount of information and advice that was on offer and chose information on all sustainable modes, including bus timetables, local cycling and walking maps and leaflets on leisure routes close to his home in order to cut down his car journeys.
     
    The McCarthy household had not had access to bus timetables before and although Neil has cycled in Watford all his life he had never seen a map outlining the network of cycle routes in the town. Neil has since managed to get his son, who has previously not taken an interest in cycling, to go out on a few rides with him. “My son uses the bus a lot. I used to drive him to school and get him a cab when I was working early shifts but now he catches the bus to school, mainly because of the bus timetables you guys gave me.” Neil has identified a few more leisurely routes to try out with his elderly father, who’s still cycling in his seventies. He found the pedometer useful and used it to see if he was reaching the recommended amount of daily steps.
     
    Thanks to TravelSmart, more households like the McCarthy household will be given the opportunity to increase their levels of physical activity and reap the health benefits of travelling more actively.
    “It’s there now whenever I need it. It will be something that I can dip into and keep using in the future.”




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