Active a2b wins national award

Greater Wellington’s summer programme, encouraging workers to make the most of their commute to work, has won a national leadership award.

Active a2b won the Trafinz (NZ Traffic Institute) Leadership Award at the Trafinz conference in Hamilton last night.

Claire Pascoe, coordinator of Active a2b, says the award is a wonderful recognition of the programme and its excellent results. “Over the two years that it has run, Active a2b has attracted more than 1500 participants from 80 workplaces all around the Wellington region.

“The programme has been very successful in encouraging people to walk or cycle to work, and leave their cars at home. For example, in both years that the programme has run, people who usually drove to work reduced their number of car commutes from around 82.5% to 61% over the three month period.”

Claire says one of the reasons the programme has been so successful is the meaningful support offered to participants. “Jumping into your car each morning is a habit that people don’t find easy to break, so we make sure they have lots of support.

“Bike mentoring is available for all Active a2b participants, and for those who want to try walking to work for a change we give them information about local walk ways and walking routes they could use. Everyone receives a weekly newsletter with handy active travel tips and participants’ success stories. I can’t count the number of people who have told us how much better they feel for walking or cycling – they arrive at work feeling invigorated and ready to take on the day.

“We know that life is increasingly busy for many people and they find it difficult to slot some exercise into their day because of commitments at work and at home. Everyone has to travel from home to work so this is a perfect way to get some exercise in at the same time.

“Summer is a perfect time for walking or cycling to work; the weather’s better and the days are longer. You can’t help but feel better for doing it.”

Some of the workplaces that took part in last year’s Active a2b included staff from: Weltec and GNS in Lower Hutt, Foodstuffs in Upper Hutt, Whitereia Polytechnic in Porirua, Kapiti Coast District Council, Wairarapa District Health Board, and most government departments, KiwiBank, Ernst and Young, and Opus in Wellington City.

Active a2b will be running again this summer from January to April 2012 with new partners Compass Health and the NZ Cancer Society.