Travel

The challenge

Read the pdf document below to find out what the Eco Family got up to in March:

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Eco Family learn about Cycle Maintenance at the John Scurr Community Centre.

Eco Family diary

"This is one month that myself and my girls was looking forward to as we have for some months been attempting to reduce our emissions, particularly with the family car usage. Our initial reason for switching to an alternative option was to lead a healthier lifestyle (which came about by the encouragement of ‘Change For Life’), and to ultimately save money, especially with the rising cost of petrol.

It was shocking for me to learn that our travel accounts for around a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions which are predicted to rise. With most of us having a car, and using it for short journeys that could be easily switched to better modes of transport such as bus, cycling or even walking. When we think about this alternative, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain for the better by switching.

It can sometimes be difficult to come out of our comfort zone, especially if you’ve always done the same thing, but by taking little first steps such as cutting down on the car usage per week, is a fantastic start to reducing your emissions. As a family we have tried and tested this and our benefits have included:-

Losing some weight (yes it is possible!).
Feeling more energetic (also lifts your mood).
Saving money (buying something nice instead as a reward).
Cutting down on journey times (rather than sitting in a traffic jam).

We as a family have combined mainly walking or cycling for all short journeys, and using public transport for those little longer journeys. We have also decided to only use the car for the difficult cases such as heavy shopping or long distance driving such as the motorways. We found that by cutting our car journeys we saved on average a shocking £50 each month. Now that can’t be bad!

To make sure we were safe on the roads on our bikes we attended a Cycle Maintenance Course at the John Scurr Community Centre with Global Action Plan. This was a great learning experience for me and my girls, with real practical advice given that was invaluable.

We are definitely going to keep the switch to walking, cycling and more public transport usage. It’s cheaper, as well as being great for my girls as they get to see more on their journeys, which is more educational for them in some way or another. We as a family do have second hand bikes which we are going to make lots more usage from them. We will of course be making sure we stay safe at all times by implementing good cycling practices.

We found out that there are lots of things local councils have been doing over the years to encourage ‘organic’ travel, such as putting on more cycling and walking routes or introducing car clubs to the neighbourhood which I think are all great ideas.

Changing my travelling plans for me is a big achievement in another good deed in being more environmentally friendly, and I would encourage others who haven’t already done so to consider making alternative options (however small),as you will find you will benefit in the long run."

Staff diary

We also challenge our staff members to take up the Eco-challenge. Read how our Regeneration Projects Officer, Ketra Najjingo, got on with the Travel month.

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