Record numbers of people took part in the BIG Commuting Challenge this summer, a new initiative designed to change the way we travel to and from work.
More than 3,600 people from across the West of England challenged themselves to swap their usual car journeys in favour of more sustainable options, making it the most successful commuter challenge across the West.
One of the success stories of this year’s initiative was Margaret Fortune from north Bristol firm, Friends Life. Margaret was so inspired by the challenge that she has continued to cycle to and from work long after the results came in.
She said: “I was so sad to see the BIG Commuting Challenge come to an end. I set myself an initial cycling target of 350 miles which I managed to surpass in four weeks, ending up on 447 miles. For a 54 year old who hadn’t cycled for a while, I was pretty pleased with the result!
“I’ve continued challenging myself since the competition ended and I’ve now travelled 750 miles, burnt more than 35,000 calories and lost 17lbs. I feel so much better in my own body and I don’t doubt the challenge can help other people achieve their goals; I’d recommend it to anyone.”
Encouraged to walk, cycle, use public transport or lift-share, people quickly took the challenge to their hearts, logging more than 76,000 journeys, travelling nearly 700,000 (698,000) miles and reducing single occupancy car travel by 25 per cent.
The challenge succeeded in removing hundreds of vehicles from our roads every day, saving 72 tonnes of CO2 and £87,000 that would have been spent on fuel and associated driving costs.
The innovative scheme was designed to capture the imagination of workers, injecting a sense of fun and friendly competition. Almost 160 business signed up to the initiative, with some firms competing in a ‘challenge within a challenge’ to beat rival companies.
Building on previous years’ ‘Jambusting June’, the BIG Commuting Challenge is based on a model developed by leading UK charity, Sustrans and was commissioned by Travelwest in conjunction with North Bristol SusCom, Business West and Bristol 2015.
Ian Barrett from Sustrans, said: “This has been the most successful first-time commuting challenge we’ve ever run in the UK. We have been overwhelmed by the response and these fantastic results indicate how our journeys to work are changing across the region. They also help highlight to others the potential to find alternative methods of transport that can benefit lifestyle, health and wallets!”
The success of the initiative has been attributed to introducing the idea of ‘challenge’ for the first time this year. Individuals were able to log the number of sustainable journeys made to get top spot on the campaign’s leader board, as well as take part in a series of mini challenges designed to increase awareness of the campaign.
Abigail Smith from Travelwest, said: “We made this year’s initiative much more responsive and easy to engage with and the brilliant results are a real testament to the hard work put in by the team and the commitment to change the way we travel from people all across the West of England.”
Amongst those setting the pace in Bristol were the Radisson Blu Hotel and Trunki where all the staff took part. In South Gloucestershire companies such as Nvidia and Hewlett Packard recorded the highest participation rates with Nvidia clocking up over 3000 journeys and encouraging 146 out of 200 staff to compete. In Bath, Curo led the way in their category (businesses with between 250-499 staff members) with North Somerset’s Knightstone Housing also logging increased numbers of sustainable business journeys.
Since the challenge ended, the team behind the initiative have had numerous stories sent in from participants whose lives have been in changed in some way by the scheme, further highlighting the success of the BIG Commuting Challenge.
