London Borough Of Bromley's Cycling Team - Winner
The London Borough of Bromley has been both committed and proactive in its efforts to improve the way that its residents travel for over half a century. As well as encouraging walking and the use of public transport, cycling and cycle training has been a major focus.
With a wholehearted launch of their Bikeability National Standards Cycling courses, 2008 was a momentous year for the Cycling Team. The Cycling Team wanted to be able to offer every child in Year 6 the opportunity of obtaining Level 1 & Level 2 cycle training. However, with over 100 schools in our borough, this was a mighty task. It was recognised that in order to fulfill the needs of residents and their children, a bigger instructor base was required. Being keen to offer an excellent quality, value for money service, the borough applied to become a National Standard Cycling Instructor Training Provider, thereby giving them the facility of training their own instructors.
They were successful and soon ran their first National Standard Instructor Training Course for eight instructors. With another seven courses and 47 instructors trained, more courses are planned for the rest of the year.
The number of people cycling in the borough has steadily increased and in the last 2 years, Level 1 training has gone from 800 to 1,200 children trained (50% increase), and Level 2 from 1,400 to 1,700 (21% increase). Level 3 training has increased too from 0 to 50 children trained (a staggering 500% increase), and Adult & Family training from 25 to 58 families trained (a 225% increase in the last 5 years).
Smarter Travel Sutton team
The Smarter Travel Sutton (STS) team focuses on integrating engineering measures with Smarter Travel measures such as travel planning, marketing campaigns and road show events. The team has achieved the following successes: 100% of schools and 16,000 employees covered by a travel plan; 27,000 residents attended STS events in a year; 15,000 unique annual visits made to the STS website; 481 car club members; 256 additional cycle parking stands installed; 75% increase in cyclists; 16% increase in bus journeys; 6% decrease in the mode share of the car since 2005/06; 32% resident awareness of the STS initiative (compared to 4% in neighbouring borough).
In March 2010 the BBC praised the borough's Smarter Travel initiatives and featured the team on the BBC London news. The video can be viewed at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8585000/8585240.stm
The team has expert skills in transport planning and delivery, marketing, policy development, education, training, and communications. The commitment of the team members is shown through their willingness to work additional hours including weekends and evenings to ensure that projects are successful and delivered on time and on budget. The team practices what they preach with all staff using sustainable modes to travel to and from work. They also organise events outside of work hours such as sponsored cycle rides, cycling holidays and lunchtime walks.
SWELTRAC
SWELTRAC’s Travel Plan Coordinators work with workplaces across five boroughs (Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and Wandsworth) to help them implement workplace travel plans, with a vision of reducing congestion caused by workplace travel, improving local environments and promoting the uptake of healthy and sustainable travel in the workplace.
The team has helped to develop 67 voluntary travel plans over the last year and an additional 61 organisations have been engaged at different stages and are developing their travel plans. The team has also substantially contributed to raising awareness about behaviour change theory and sustainable transport across the whole capital. Thanks to the team, the momentum has been kept of 14 organisations that are members of the Teddington Travel to Work Network by providing them with bike week events, regular Dr Bike visits, development of a car-sharing scheme and creating bespoke mapping options. As a result, the network has been short-listed for Pan European Mobility Plan Awards (PEWTA) 2010.
Over the next year the team will be offering initiatives that were piloted in Teddington, such as bespoke site-specific mapping and on-site Dr Bike sessions, across South West London.
Lewisham Council's Sustainable Transport Team
The Sustainable Transport Team at London Borough of Lewisham prides itself on tireless and imaginative work on travel awareness, and school and workplace travel plans with the whole community of the borough.
To increase travel awareness, the team organises and administers two initiatives, the Step Counter Challenge and Walking Works. The team also leads the organisation of the Bike and Kite Festival which is held on Blackheath during Bike Week. Highlights include: Guided bike rides to the O2, Surrey Docks City Farm and 2012 Olympic site; Dr Bike mechanics; bike try-out roadshow for all ages and abilities; information and participation from partners e.g. Sustrans, Transport for London, Police; opportunity to sit in the HGV driver’s seat and identify “blind spots” around the vehicle that are potentially fatal for a cyclist.
Furthemore, the team has secured school travel plans with 99.5% of schools (99.8% of pupils) in the borough. The percentage of pupils travelling to school by car has decreased from 27.13% in 2006/7 to 18.87% in 2008/9.
An annual STP Conference has been held since 2006 and has increased in attendance and interest year-on-year. The conference held in October 2009 entitled “Smarter Travel and Schools – moving toward sustainability” included workshops and presentations from a different areas including three Lewisham schools, Parking, Education, Transport for London, Westminster Council.
The team also works to engage organisations in the borough to develop Workplace Travel Plans. The Lewisham Council Travel Plan is monitored bi-annually and has achieved a significant decrease of 7% in single-occupancy car journeys from 39% in 2005 to 32% in 2009. The Team also facilitates staff lunchtime walks; staff cycle forum; pool bike schemes; Dr Bike surgeries; and cycle maintenance training.
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s Road Safety and Sustainable Travel team works closely to encourage safe and sustainable transport in the Royal Borough to schools, workplaces and for residents in specific areas of the borough.
The team’s work with schools has seen the greatest benefit from combining road safety and sustainable travel projects. Their school travel officers have completed a travel plan at every school in the borough. The team has introduced training for walking, cycling and scooting to school in order to increase parental confidence in their children’s ability to travel sustainably and to ensure children have the requisite road skills. The team has made use of the Junior Road Safety Officers in schools by enabling them to carry out surveys of their local area and to find out what areas make them feel unsafe. Engineering funding is then reprioritised to those areas with treatable concerns. The team is also tackling congestion outside schools through partnership work with Safer Neighbourhood teams and Parking Enforcement. These efforts have resulted in a 24% reduction in pupils travelling to school by car, whilst maintaining our record of the lowest child road casualties in London behind the City of London.
Workplaces in the Royal Borough have also benefited from the team’s approach. Initiatives that reach over 27,000 staff include: Monthly provision of free Dr Bike sessions; Walk to Work week; weekly competitions and funding of free pedometers; cycle challenges; safety seminars.
The team’s work to promote safe walking and cycling also extends to residents, resulting in a 300% increase in cycle training requests.
Over the next five years the team plans to expand sustainable travel and road safety promotions.
