Main Objective
The main objective of ACTIVE ACCESS is to increase the use of cycling but especially walking for short everyday trips in local areas, in order to benefit people’s health, and the health of the local economy. It aims to transfer longer car trips to shorter walking and cycling trips by changing people’s mental maps of their local neighbourhoods so that they realise what is available on their doorstep, rather than in the edge of town retail park.
Specific Objectives
- Save energy through a modal shift from car to walking and cycling, in the order of 4 million litres of fuel over the project’s life;
- Improve public health, by increasing the percentage of the population in ACTIVE ACCESS partner towns and cities who take regular exercise by 10%;
- Helping to tackle obesity;
- Strengthen local economies by making key target groups (e.g. local residents) more aware of, and therefore more frequent users of, shopping and leisure opportunities close to their homes;
- By strengthening local economies, thus ensuring that services remain close to where people live – important for the ageing populations of most EU member states;
- Build the capacity of ACTIVE ACCESS partners and followers to implement measures to encourage walking and cycling for short local trips, so that their cities to remain accessible and thus competitive in an era of steeply rising fuel prices;
- Spread the knowledge of ACTIVE ACCESS and its contents in the broadest and most comprehensive way (with a particular focus on New Member States);
- Reduce conflicts/barriers between walking and cycling, building alliances between the two areas, demonstrating to partners and others that these two modes have much in common and everything to gain from each other; and
- Raise awareness of and support for walking as a mode of transport in the EU generally and the New Member States in particular.
Target Groups
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Decision Makers (politicians)
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Multipliers (journalists)
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End Users (shops, companies, schools, general public)
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Encouraging walking and cycling to a local primary school. To achieve this goal a number of activities are planned within the framework of the program. These activities include:
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- Mental Map
Ask children to express their own perception of how they arrive at school, by the use of a drawing (ex.) who takes them, what they see/experience while en route, mode of transportation, overall emotions/feelings; during the art class, before raising awareness on alternatives modes of transport.
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Survey/Measurement
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Measurement before the campaign concerning modal split: the teacher must question and use a form of interactive activity in order to fully succeed in the survey stage of the project. All pupils will be questioned on their current travel behaviour to and from school (hands-up survey) as well as asked to indicate (with stickers provided by the teacher) their mode of transportation on that particular day. This activity will be performed on a poster board located in the classroom, and will be done everyday as hands-on evidence and a clear comparison for before and after AA is set in place.
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Campaigning
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Professionals: Speak to pupils once at the beginning of the campaign and the end as a follow-up presentation, to share their expertise on sustainable travel.
Teachers: Incorporation of sustainable transportation into daily classroom activities.
Parents: Speak with children outside school on the benefits of active access, use sustainable transport for recreational use with children.
Students: Participation in walking bus.
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Walking Audit
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Perform a walking audit in the “walking bus” area. The Mayor of Egkomi will be invited to participate in this walking audit, along with the top administration of the Ministry of Communication and Works.
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Walking Bus
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Plan the walking bus and stimulate pupils to participate. Conduct walkabouts, to select pleasant and safe routes. Train the children (with the cooperation of the police) on road safety rules and regulations. Involve the local authorities. Motives: 1) identify a “walking champion” (the prize is awarded to the child with the biggest participation in the walking bus) 2) Traffic Snake Game (handing out stickers each time a pupil travels to school with a sustainable mode of transport) 3) Earthy colour clothes for sustainable travellers (no uniforms).
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Evaluation Measurment
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Measurement after the campaign concerning modal split: the teacher must question. All pupils in the class on their current travel behaviour to and from school (hands-up survey) as well as the continued use of the daily transportation posterboard. Evidence will be shown regarding each posterboard in each classroom by its daily use and results.
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Mental Map
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After the completion of the campaign, we will ask the children who participated in the walking bus to draw their new experiences, surroundings, and feelings, while en route to school, for a comparative analysis.
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Encouraging walking and cycling to a local high school, lyceum and cceia to achieve this goal a number of activities are planned within the framework of the program. These activities include:
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Survey
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Create two groups of maximum 10 students each (Engomi High School & Kykkos Lyceum) that will conduct research based on the student body’s attitudes and perceptions of alternative transportation. The students will create a questionnaire to be given to all the students, residents of Municipality of Engomi (including the ones not participating in research), in which data will be recorded to provide the primary answers of students before the research. In more detail, the questionnaire will determine in relation to the number of family members in the student’s household, the number and type of transport modes used and perceptions and knowledge on ecological transport. Guided and instructed by teachers and/or an expert research team, the carefully selected students will conduct fieldwork in the surrounding area. This will identify any obstacles in walking or cycling, lack of infrastructure and proceed with suggestions for improvement for the area and change the perceptions of alternative transport for the other students attending school.
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- Campaign
Raising awareness campaign. The campaign will use the following tools: 1) Informative presentation to all students by the team of CCEIA, teachers and students participating in the research. 2) Posters 3) Informational leaflets promoting alternative modes of transport, will be given to the teachers, students and shops in Nicosia. 4) Use of up-to-date, contemporary existing short films in order to promote walking or cycling as a way of daily transportation. 5) Produce and distribute 3D dimensional maps of the surrounding area indicating the walking & cycling routes and all cyclists’ friendly shops or places. 6) Holding sessions with schools’ stakeholders, local authority, shop owners, parents and students for better bicycle facilities. 7) Create a cycling club at the cceia and organize cycling trips.
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Evaluation
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Measurement after the campaign. The teacher must question all students in the class on their current travel behaviour to and from school, as well as recreational used mode of transport (hands-up survey).
Dissemination and promotional activities
Final Event
The event will take place at the cceia of Nicosia and it will be co-organized with the Ministry of Communication and Works and Engomi Municipality. The following stakeholders from within Engomi will be invited to the final event: The mayor and all elected members of the municipality council, politicians, parliament members, doctors, environmentalists, teachers, cyclists’ clubs, residents’ associations, shop owners and the media. The event will function as a method of lobbying and putting social pressure on the issue provided.