24% of participants say they are now using their car less as a direct result of a “ground-breaking travel initiative” by City of York Council.
Since the launch of i-Travel York in May 2013, a team of locally recruited and trained advisers have been providing tailored travel advice to more than 12,000 residents in the north of the city – to encourage them to consider alternative travel options such as cycling, car sharing, walking and public transport.
Nearly 6,500 people participated in a ‘personalised travel challenge’ to try a new way of getting around York. Participants received incentives such as a pedometer, a free bus taster ticket worth £20, discounted cycle training and a free bike health check.
More than 700 children took part in an active travel challenge to try cycling, walking or scooting for 60-minutes a day; and more than 2,500 residents signed up to the project’s online travel club, MyTravelYork.
In a recent customer satisfaction survey completed by 500 participants, 95% rated their level of satisfaction with the service provided by i-Travel York as ‘very good’ or ‘fairly good’.
27% of those surveyed also said they are cycling and walking more; 18% are using the bus more; and 24% said they are using their car less as a direct result of the project.
On average, i-Travel York participants say they are doing an extra 15-20 minutes of walking and cycling a day, and car drivers have reduced their mileage by around four miles a day.
i-Travel York was made possible by £4.6m of government funding and the project’s success contributed to the recent award of a further £1m grant to sustain the programme until March 2016.
Cllr David Levene, cabinet member for transport, said: “The results are overwhelmingly positive.
“By supporting even more people to walk, cycle, use public transport, or car share to get around York, we’ve encouraged 27% of those who took part to increase their levels of cycling and walking and 18% to increase their bus use.”
You have to be careful when putting out stats after giving freebies. I know of one safety website and forum that did this and then bragged that they had over 7000 members. Well they would if they were giving away free this and that. Some time ago they lost a lot of finances and since then it had struggled to survive.
So giving freebies away distorts any true picture of improvement. When it is all over many will return to their well established and historic ways. Let us see in 3 years time if there has been any residual benefit. Until then a pinch of salt I think.
bob craven Lancs Space is safe Campaigner.
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