Warwickshire residents are being asked about their travel habits to help inform a new campaign by Warwickshire County Council’s Road Safety Education and Active Travel Team.
During the pandemic, and particularly during the three lockdown periods, multiple studies have shown that across the UK more people than ever before began adopting active travel: Walking, running, cycling or scooting. This had a number of very positive benefits:
- Better health outcomes for residents by providing them with a daily source of physical exercise;
- Reducing the number of cars on the roads which in turn reduced overall congestion and the opportunities for road traffic collisions; and
- Significantly contributed to reducing Warwickshire’s overall carbon footprint.
Since the end of the last formal lockdown, there has been evidence to suggest that these positive travel trends have been reversing and many residents have been returning to less active modes of transport for short journeys.
The Warwickshire County Council Road Safety and Active Travel Team are planning a summer campaign to encourage behaviour change back towards active travel solutions for short journeys – one mile and under when walking, and five miles and under when cycling – and to inform this important piece of work have created a survey that seeks to reveal:
- The types of travel that people make during an average week;
- How many active travel journeys residents are making at present;
- People's attitudes towards walking and cycling; and
- Feedback on what could be done to encourage more active travel.
Residents can access this survey here: https://ask.warwickshire.gov.uk/transport-planning/active-travel-survey/
The survey is open from Wednesday 25 May until Wednesday 15 June 2022.
Information received as part of this survey will be used to shape future activity and residents wishing to get more involved are encouraged to sign-up to be a part of a special one-off online focus group, by emailing an expression of interest to: SafeandActiveTravelCampaign@warwickshire.gov.uk
Cllr Wallace Redford, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Transport and Highways, said: “One of our key Council priorities is to encourage sustainable and active travel across Warwickshire. In order to enable us to do this, we are keen to hear from as many residents as possible about their travel habits and whether and how these have changed during the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
More information about safe and active travel in Warwickshire can be found here: http://safeactivetravelwcc.co.uk/