We collaborated with the Active Travel Academy to encourage people to Stride & Ride

We’ve all had to deal with a lot of change over the last few months- but now we are beginning to look towards a brighter future. A lot of people might be feeling apprehensive about lockdown lifting, one of the worries including how we will begin to travel again.

Noticeably quieter roads have brought a much needed breath of fresh air to many streets, and cycling is experiencing an incredible boom but there’s a risk that more cars will fill our roads as lockdown eases; bringing back toxic air, more climate wrecking carbon emissions and higher road deaths. On the other side of the coin, it’s vital that we ensure public transport is safe for those that rely on it, including key workers. So, what should we expect - a traffic tsunami or a cycling surge?

To dig a little deeper into what might be in store we carried out research in collaboration with the Active Travel Academy. We found that if everyone who previously took public transport, but has access to a car, switched to driving after lockdown, we could see a million extra cars at rush hour every day. In some areas, this would mean 75% more traffic squeezing onto our streets.

But it wasn’t all bad news. Our research also found that across England and Wales half of all journeys taken by public transport could switch to cycling and walking. That would go a long way to helping ensure public transport is safe for those who need it. Even better - up to (90%) in cities including Hull,  London and Exeter. For those who can, switching to ‘active travel’ is a great way to free up space for people who need it most, while keeping yourself healthy - and our streets safe for all. 

That’s why we’ve launched Stride & Ride - a new movement of people choosing to swap cars and public transport for active journeys, to keep themselves and those around them safe and well. Whether you are walking, jogging, cycling, skating, scooting, blading, rolling, wheeling, skipping (you get the idea) - there are so many fun ways to get involved. 

Don’t worry if you’re unable to make a pledge. You can still support the campaign by sharing with others and writing to your MP to ask councils to allocate sufficient funding to make walking and cycling safe, easy and accessible to all. Don’t worry if you’re not an expert! Stride & Ride offers a safe community for everyone- regardless of ability -to try something new and share their experiences, questions and adventures. Together, by choosing to stride or ride from A to B we can keep public transport safe, keep our streets healthy, and keep our key workers moving.

Sound like something you’d be interested in? Why not take the Ride and Stride 5 pledge to get started with five active journeys in a fortnight. Everyone’s at it...