Walk to School 2.0

Strider Video

2008-09-04T12:52:00.001+01:00

This is a test to see if I can get an RSS feed working with video.

Walk to School Conference DVD

2008-05-01T18:37:00.001+01:00

You wait ages for a post, and then three come along at once...
The DVDs and CD-ROM from the Walk to School conference finally arrived on my desk this morning - it has taken far longer than I expected, but they are done now!

I hope to get them out early next week - I need to arrange a volunteer to come and stuff them into envelopes for us.

Thanks for your patience, I hope they are worth the wait (and yes, they do have the "too cool for school" video on them).

Robo-pop

2008-05-01T18:13:00.002+01:00

I bought a copy of the Mirror today. Not a paper I usually buy, but there was an article about walking to school in it - which I had written the press release for.

My eye was drawn, however, by the story about lollypop people being armed with video cameras hidden in their lollypops as a way of catching abusive and threatening motorists.

I think this is a great idea. Having spoken to many lollipop people in my time (or school crossing patrols to give them their proper title) it is shocking how much abuse they face from impatient motorists. The figure of 1,400 "patrol rage" incidents seems, if anything, a bit on the low side in my experience.

What motorists don't seem to realise is the great job these people do - often for very little thanks (and certainly very little pay).

If nothing else, without school crossings there would either need to be more traffic lights (and road ragers don't want that) or there would be less people walking to school (because they don't feel safe) increasing the congestion on the road. Yes they may be in a hurry at the moment, but the alternatives are both (from the POV of the road rager) worse!

It is sad that these "robo-pops" are needed, but if it will help protect and support lollypop people, I am all for it.

The Department for Transport School Travel Statistics

2008-05-01T17:49:00.005+01:00

Every year the Department for Transport (bless 'em) run the National Travel Survey. Until recently, this was the best source of data on how children travel to school (there is now a question in the school census).

There are good points and bad points to the methodology for both (both could be improved), but statistically they agree with each other - so the debate is immaterial.

The most recent National Travel Survey (2006 - they publish the results around Aug/Sept of the following year) is here: http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/personal/mainresults/nts2006/

This year, however, they have also produced a handy guide to all the stats you could ever want to know about travel to school specifically.
This can be found here: http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/personal/factsheets/school.pdf

It was published in March, but I have only just found it again. I have been referring to it ALOT recently, so I thought it was worth posting for others to make use of too!

boy, 16, builds bicycle entirely out of wood

2008-04-25T15:50:00.002+01:00

http://www.leevalley.com/newsletters/Woodworking/2/3/article1.htm

I came across this while I was looking for examples of "pimped" bicycle trailers. I guess it is the ultimate in sustainable transport!

This 16 year old built an entire bicycle out of wood - including a wooden chain, and a ratchet system so he can go downhill without having to pedal. It is very cool, and the workmanship alone deserves kudos.

And I refuse to mention the old joke about a wooden bicycle, with wooden wheels, a wooden saddle and wooden chain - it wooden go.

Richmond charge parents for driving 4x4s

2008-04-25T12:23:00.005+01:00

I haven't posted for a while as I have been off sick, and then have had LOADS of conference type things to go to. Sorry.

I just wanted to comment briefly on Richmond councils plans to charge parents for parking outside the school.

It strikes me as a brilliant idea, and is something I would like to see more councils doing, particularly when they introduce controlled parking zones (CPZ's).

In Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, my sister in law used to "Park & Stride" to school - parking at her brothers house, then walking her kids the final fifteen minutes to the school (along with her brothers children). The system worked very well until the council introduced a CPZ at her brothers house.

She could no longer park outside his house for 30 minutes each morning and each evening without him paying for a visitor pass (which was around £2 a day I think). She now (disappointingly to me) drives her kids the whole way.

I am broadly in favour of CPZ's. When used delicately they can reduce congestion on roads, encourage people to walk further and make streets safer and nicer for walking. All too often, however, the introduction of a CPZ is a blunt instrument - banning all parking from the street, no matter how long they want to park there. I think most people would agree that there is a world of difference between someone parking outside your house for 30 minutes while they walk their children to school, and someone parking outside for the whole day while they go to work, or go shopping.

The blunter CPZ's tend to move the problem on, rather than solving it, and the CPZ has to grow and grow to accommodate the movement.

While I can't find whether the Richmond experiment is within a wider CPZ, it sounds to me like an excellent example of a "delicate tool".

I have met the leader of Richmond council, and he was explaining to me the thinking behind their previous headline grabbing initiative (which was to charge 4x4s more for resident parking). While the increased pollution (CO2) was a major part of the reasoning, larger (more polluting) cars take up more parking space, and cause more road damage (being heavier), so they are asked to pay proportionately more - seems fair to me!

In the Richmond example the charge works out, even for the most expensive cars, at less than 40p per school day. Despite the protestations of the militant AA, I hope most people would agree that this charge is actually very reasonable (remember it is only the biggest most polluting cars that will pay this).

Social Networking for Charities: MyActionAid.com

2008-04-01T10:51:00.007+01:00

Last week I went to a peer sharing event organised by oneworld about social networking. The session started with a chat about MyActionaid.org.uk.

Myactionaid is a social network for people raising money for the charity ActionAid.
It allows each fund raiser to blog about their exploits, and add photos etc onto their profile. Supporters can comment, and can donate money (it is mainly about the fundraising at the moment, but there is a plan to become more campaigning too).

The question posed was "is it better to fish in someone else's pond, or create your own?". I.e, are we better trying to get support and campaign on facebook, bebo and myspace (et al) or are we better to create our own network.

I am strongly in favour of the latter (at least for Walk to School 2.0), because I know how tight the firewalls in schools are, but there were some other very good reasons that MyActionAid had found too:

Beating the FadCycle
There is a "social network churn" as people move from friends reunited (remember that!) to myspace, to facebook and on to the next thing. Having your own space means you aren't so reliant on the "current big thing", and your campaign continues as the fads change.

Oxfam have found this with "OxJam". Two years ago it was all over Myspace, now they are having to move it all into Facebook.

That said, it is still important to maintain a presence on all the social networks, so you don't get cybersquatted, and people can find you! The "fadcycle" will also become less of a problem as opensocial becomes a standard.
Encouraging "FadFogies"
FadFogies are those people who think "social networking is too hard" or "it's not for me". The most prolific blogger on MyActionAid is a 60 something marathon runner. He has never used social networking before, but has become a prolific brand champion.

One of my concerns with Walk to School secondary is that, while all the teens are tech literate, the teachers aren't. MyActionAid's experience suggested to me that perhaps there is hope if we can persuade teachers to take it up.
Better engagement
Myactionaid has measured better (number of visits, level of donations, time spent on site etc) in some months than the "corporate" ActionAid website. This is despite it being less than a year old, and not being promoted through advertising until early January.

It is developing a core of committed supporters that can be called upon to act on their behalf.
The competitive element
Myactionaid encourages (though not overtly) competition about "how much money have I raised". Likewise, oneworld's oneclimate.net asks "how much carbon dioxide can you save" and allows you to compete with your friends to reduce your carbon emissions.

I have to say this is one of the most useful breakfast meetings I have been to - lots of food for thought!

Dismantling a Pedometer

2008-03-27T10:07:00.004Z

Last night I decided to dismantle a pedometer.

As you would imagine for a charity promoting walking, we have a lot of pedometers knocking about the place, and I was intrigued how they actually work - and particularly if I could make my own (and then maybe turn it into a lesson plan...)

Online I found this site: http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/pedometer
which is great for dismantling an electronic pedometer.

The ones we have in the office are mechanical - like the ones originally designed by Thomas Jefferson almost 200 years ago!

Here is the video I took as I did it (I sped it up as there were some dull bits when I was finding a suitable screwdriver!).

In total there were 23 pieces.

Broadly speaking there is a weighted pendulum (the L shaped arm with a black weight on the end, pivoted at the cog on the right) that swings every time it moves, and then advances the clockwork mechanism. My favourite part is the escapement which allows the cog attached to the pendulum to only rotate one way.

Thanks to Charlotte for the photo.

The escapement is composed of the two short brass strips. One stops the cog rotating backwards, and the other (attached to the pendulum the lever) advances the cog forwards one notch each time the pendulum moves. The long silver strip is a hair spring, which acts against the pendulum, pushing it back to resting position.

Incidentally I tested the mechanical pedometer against a Silva electronic pedometer. The silva one registered 1624 steps Vs 3500 steps on the mechanical one...(no I didn't count my steps so I don't know which is more accurate!).

What actually am I doing for Secondary Schools?

2008-03-12T14:45:00.003Z

If you have actually spoke with me recently you will know that my vision for the Walk to Secondary School Campaign is centred around a whizzy website. I am currently developing the brief for this, and have been talking with school travel advisors, schools and website designers to get an idea of how it could work.

One of the things I have quickly realised is that I need to be talking a lot with the techy types that will understand what is possible within the budget we have. I then came across the Social Innovation Camp - 48 hours of coding a website for social good!

So to cut a long story short I have put forward the idea to this camp. They may choose it, they may not, but if you would like to see what I am proposing, the SIcamp website would be a great place to start. Click on the title above.

Obviously as soon as I have a better idea of a brief, I will get it up here. But for the moment, this will do.

The woman who stops traffic - episode three

2008-03-12T14:27:00.004Z

I watched the last episode of this channel 4 mini series last night.

Kristen was trying to deal with the people of Durham, where they have a great park and ride, a great cycle network, local amenities and no-one used it. They were still addicted to the car.

Editorially it was more of the same, very interesting but actually not a lot of extra substance than the previous programmes (albeit done on a larger scale, and in the middle of winter). It was great to see her end on a success though, and particularly with the wind and rain forecast on the day!

I also found it interesting that she didn't call on 3rd sector "expert help". In the first episode she made use of Sustrans, the second one called on Living Streets, but the third mainly focused on Durham council itself - which was lovely to see. It was also great to see a school travel advisor getting well deserved attention!

The thing that hit me most about the programme, however, was the adverts in the breaks. There were so many adverts for car insurance! More Than, Tesco, Money Supermaket, Go Compare etc etc. I felt it rather undermined the message of both the programme and the advertisers, but hey - maybe that's just me!

The Woman Who Stops Traffic Hits Boston

2008-03-05T10:44:00.004Z

Last night saw the second episode of channel 4's "The Woman Who Stops Traffic". Set in Boston, Lincolnshire, Kristen tried to reduce the traffic in the town described as "Britain's Fattest".

Despite some small successes (particularly the number of children and parents walking to school on the day), her intervention didn't work - there was actually more traffic on the day of the car free-day!

From my point of view, I felt it was very brave of channel 4 to show the programme anyway (though the cynic in me thinks it is all part of a bigger story - this week is the "hero takes a knock", next week: "hero returns triumphant").

So what went wrong?

My feeling is that she fundamentally didn't know how to talk to the Bostonians. She was distracted by the tag of "the fattest town in Britain" and assumed that the primary behaviour change driver would be about their health. She was appealing to individuals in a long term manner, rather than the benefits they would see immediately (with health being a useful side effect).

Zoe, one of the mums at the school (who drives in 20 minutes early to ensure she gets a car parking space for the school run!) summed it up when she said "I live for now".

The area had a very strong local identity, so I was surprised she wasn't appealing to feelings of community pride in the same way as she had in Marlow. I think the programme was trying to focus on the different benefits of changing car use over the series, but "health" and "the environment" aren't motivating factors for a lot of people. She would have been better to look at a more self focused attitude - what is in it for me? - to which the answers are "more money" (not spending on petrol); more time (not driving round looking for a parking space); and "more friends" (the social aspects of walking).

There were a number of sequences when I physically cringed at the way she was preaching to the locals. It reminded me of "Marjorie Dawes" of Fat Fighters (Little Britain), in the way she used negative emotions (guilt, emotional blackmail). Again Zoe summed it up: "she nags on a bit".

Overall Boston was somewhere where everyone seemed to feel a bloody minded entitlement to drive. The ray of hope was on the estate where Mandy (the estate matriarch) persuaded everyone to walk to the school, but this was done as a social event, not for the "greater good" of improved health.

The woman who stops traffic - did it work?

2008-03-03T13:20:00.003Z

So I pondered earlier whether "The woman who stops traffic" on Channel 4 had worked in Marlow long term - has the number of cars on the road dropped sustainably, or just for the one day?

I got a Google alert this morning which answers some of the question...

Bucks free press - TV mom to complain over Marlow documentary

While bearing in mind the sensationalist nature of local papers (though I don't know this one specifically), the suggestion is that the event didn't have a long term impact.

Is that a surprise? no - I don't think so. The "great and the good" seemed quite apathetic and these things take more than a day to get embedded as a habit.

Does it matter? Is it still valuable as a TV programme? Yes - absolutely. This has moved the issue up the agenda, and I have had conversations about traffic with people who have never shown an interest before - as a direct result of the programme.

Unfortunately, one TV programme or one "walk to school" event won't get everyone out of their cars for the school run - oh that life was that simple! That doesn't mean we shouldn't do it, and it doesn't mean we shouldn't celebrate when we do have successes.

The Woman who stops traffic

2008-02-27T13:13:00.004Z

I think I have got a bit "blogged down" recently with the conference. It was a lovely idea to post something on each session, but it meant I didn't want to write anything else until I had got that out of the way.

I will write about my workshop session once I have prepared some of the materials I want to link to from the post.

In the meantime I wanted to talk about "the woman who stops traffic" a Channel 4 programme last night (1 of 3) which has been billed in some places as "Jamie's School Dinners" for sustainable transport.

Disclosure: Just so you know, one of my colleagues is involved in next weeks episode (in Boston, Lincs) looking at encouraging walking. It will also feature Strider (the primary campaign mascot). I wasn't involved in the programme at all (I was on jury service), so hopefully I can be objective!

I really enjoyed this programme. It showed the problem without being (too) sensationalist. The problem in Marlow (as in many towns) is that a quarter of all journeys made were under 2 miles. This number of cars put huge pressure on the town centre, the high street and the historic suspension bridge over the Thames.

I loved the quote from the traffic engineer near the beginning: (everyone thinks) "Traffic is other people". It reminded me of Satre: "Hell is other people"!

All the "great and the good" of the town were hugely sceptical of Kris - one man actually walked out of a a meeting because he thought the meeting was going to be about "transportation" rather than "reducing car use" (go figure!). They were preparing to invest millions of pounds into new roads and car parks, yet couldn't find £3000 to run a "go car free for one day a week" campaign (starting with a single day of action).

The most shocking section for me was when Kris visited a school for the first time. I have never been a school travel planner, so the first parent meeting (200 kids at the school, Kris puts out 40 chairs "the rest of the parents can stand", only 12 turn up!) was a huge insight into quite what a difficult job being a school travel planner is. The attitude of the parents was exactly what I expected ("What if it rains","I would if everyone else did", "it's too dangerous", "we need a proper crossing"), but I was shocked how strongly they believed their positions - they were not open to change at all.

There then followed a classic media "against all odds" story, with Kris trying to whip up support and being rebuffed at every turn. It was very well told, and you truly didn't know what would happen at the end of it.

Although I would have liked to see the story of the school mums a bit more -the most vociferous critic became the most ardent supporter by the end, and her epiphany was glossed over - I really felt firedup at the end of their "change gear" day. There were fantastic "before and after" shots of empty streets, only 6 kids went to school by car and the traffic in the town had halved on their "change gear" day.

What I would love to know - and if you know please comment - is whether the "don't drive one day a week" message got through, and traffic in Marlow has stayed lower.

The programme was originally concieved as a one off, but the strength of the first programme led to two more being created, and a supporting website too.

For me, the crucial difference between this and Jamie's school dinners is that Jamie needed Government (local and central) action. While there does need to be far more money put into promoting sustainable transport, and also improved infrastructure, there also needs to be action by ordinary people like you and me choosing to use our cars less. Despite sceptics comments, these campaigns are not "anti-car", they are just proposing "responsible car use" - thinking before you make a journey.

The show is available for the next 30 days through 4OD - go watch it! (www.channel4.com/4od/index.html).

Walk to School Conference: Clare Mulholland

2008-02-21T20:48:00.006Z

Every Journey Matters,
Clare Mulholland, Transport for London
The final presentation of the day (before the afternoon workshops) was from the conference sponsors, Transport for London.

Clare spoke about the "Every Journey Matters" resource, a book and website looking at travel to school across the globe. I was pleased to get Clare to speak as I knew she had been working with the charity PeaceChild to create it, but hadn't actually seen the book yet!

They have done a great job of getting stories of travelling to school from all over the globe - I was particularly impressed by the children who have to cross a river by a pulley system that looks as if it belongs on an SAS assault course. The story about the kids who have to paddle to the next island to get to school, and were sent home for coming to school wet, shows that we actually have it very easy in the UK.

The resource was launched in October for International Walk to School Month, but the lesson plans, book and website can be used at any time of the year. Although there is a bit of a London focus, it is suitable for use across the UK, and indeed the globe!

We had hoped to distribute copies of the book at the conference. Unfortunately they didn't arrive, so we will be sending them out with the DVD we are preparing. In the meantime, check out the website: www.everyjourneymatters.co.uk

Walk to School Conference: Royal College of Art

2008-02-17T23:22:00.011Z

Video Presentation: too cool for school,
Guillaume Drapier, Dae Kyung Ahn, Nicholas Reddall, Royal College of Art

Back in October we issued a call for papers - asking for submissions on the theme of "a new tool for walk to school". This was the paper we chose. These three are industrial design students at the Royal College of Art, and this was their first project at college - a guerilla project during International Walk to School month.

What they did was use a very simple (and cheap!) idea to turn the walk to school into something very special. They bought a roll of silvery tape, then stuck it over the pavement and walls, making simple shapes which children would then follow on their way to school. It reminded me of being small and walking between the cracks in the pavement! The video they showed of their adventure was hugely inspiring, and was a fantastic way to finish the presentation sessions.

Here are some stills from the video:

We had lots of people asking if they could have a copy of the video. We are currently exploring this possibility - we need to make sure that we have covered all the legal angles (permissions etc). Lets see what we can do!

Walk to School Conference: Hodden Abdullahi & Blossom Young

2008-02-17T22:48:00.003Z

A Teen View of Sustainable Travel,
Hodden Abdullahi and Blossom Young, Tower Hamlets

Hodden is the deputy youth mayor of Tower Hamlets. This post is voted fro annually by the young people of Tower Hamlets, to represent them and work on their behalf.

The elections were in full swing at the time of the conference, so it was not clear until about a week before the event who we would have speaking from Tower Hamlets. Add to this the fact that Hodden's train was late, and I am sure you can understand what an intimidating experience it must have been for Hodden to stand in front of the conference and talk about her experiences of travelling to school.

I felt I had to apologise to Hodden after the event, as we probably hadn't given her a clear brief, or the support she needed to get her points across. I felt she was hugely brave in very adverse circumstances.

When Hodden had spoken, Blossom Young (pictured above - a youth worker who runs the young mayor scheme) had a couple of points to add. Most interestingly, Tower Hamlets are looking at spreading their sixth form facilities right across the borough (rather than have lots of colleges offering the same courses). This would obviously invovle more travellign than is currently the case, so they have been asking teens what their opinion of travelling in the borough is. The major point of concern is personal safety as they travel through different areas.

While this is piece of work is for a wider report, Blossom hopes that it will eventually make it into the public domain, so I will post it here when that happens.

Walk to School Conference: Andrew Fielding and Colleagues

2008-02-12T16:43:00.000Z

New Tools from the Walk to School Campaign,
Andrew Fielding, Walk to School Campaign, Living Streets
Tracey McBride, Walk to School Scotland Campaigner
Sam Potter, Walk to School (Secondary Engagement)

So then we came to my session. I started by thanking everyone for the huge effort they put into Walk to School in 2007 - it was our most successful year to date, but so much of this is down to the people on the ground doing the promotion locally. Thank you all again!

I then told the story of when I was "spotted" walking in Victoria, London, and heard two children muttering "he's wearing a Walk to School T-shirt!" - great moment! Oh and I mentioned Tony Blair and Arnie being fans...

The key thrust of my presentation was about our new Walk to School strategy, and the tools available to local authorities and schools. It is all about our keeping our profile higher during the year - currently Walk to School week and Walk to School month are the biggies, and then people forget about us during the rest of the year (particularly in local authorities that don't do WoW).

When I started there was just me - and I was stretched in what I could do - now we have four members of staff working on the Walk to School campaign and a whole suite of ideas for useful tools. Already Strider (the primary campaign mascot) is available for visiting schools, and we are adding new ideas far more often than we used to when it was just me!

Tracey, our Walk to School Coordinator working specifically in Scotland, also introduced herself and the work she is doing north of the border. Where we get new ideas or create new resources these will be shared across the rest of the campaign.

Finally, Sam Potter and I talked about the new Secondary School campaign. This is funded by the BIG Lottery fund, but is so new that there is not a great deal we can announce yet. Rest assured, as our ideas crystalize, and the campaigns develop, we will be announcing our plans through this blog.

Walk to School Conference: Alex Wood

2008-02-12T12:06:00.000Z

How to engage with teenagers,
Alex Wood, People and Planet

One of the themes of the second session of the day was communicating with teenagers. People and Planet is a student led group in Universities and Sixth Forms which campaigns on ending world poverty, defending human rights, and protecting the environment.

Alex is an intern at People and Planet and spends a lot of time visiting schools and colleges to deliver workshops and support their campaigns.

Much of Alex's presentation was on how P&P engages with the groups it works with. They have a very student led and consensual way of doing things (the delegate sat next to me suggested that maybe more councils should work this way!). In particular they see teachers as facilitators rather than as leaders.

I was also rather taken by their active agreement idea - rather than agree by applauding, they wave their hands in the air for agreement, and wave them towards the ground to disagree. That way everyone's opinion can be heard (it sounds rather like the thumbs up/thumbs down in gladiators to me!).

People and Planet have two important things which I want to bring to the secondary school campaign. They have extensive experience of youth led campaigning, and they have a network of school activist groups already out there and interested in campaigning!

Over the next few months I will be working with Alex to help them create transport related campaign briefings, and perhaps also to share the names of their 6th form groups with the local school travel advisors.

Walk to School Conference: Phillip Mulligan

2008-02-12T10:19:00.001Z

Traffic Noise, Noise Action Week and the Walk to School
Phillip Mulligan, Environmental Protection UK

The link between walking to school and noise is perhaps not the most obvious one, so I wanted Phillip to speak and help our delegates make the links for this year's Walk to School week.

For Walk to School week we will be working closely with our colleagues at Environmental Protection UK, as it is also Noise Action Week, and we are promoting the links between noise and walking.

After a brief introduction to Environmental Protection UK (formerly NSCA) and Noise Action Week, Phillip went into the details of the noise agenda in the UK at the moment.

Noise pollution is increasing, and affecting the quality of life of more people than ever before. There is now EU legislation to tackle noise and, in particular, by July there are 20 or so conurbations across the UK that are expected to have action plans for tackling transport noise.

Phillip had some good points about noise on our streets - and particularly how the noise in schools and cities is higher than the the WHO recommendations. Perhaps surprisingly, his figures showed that walking or cycling by the road was one of the quietest modes of transport - on the noise within a car, and well behind the noise of motorbikes, trains and the underground.

He also made some interesting points about the health impacts of noise - and particularly that children exposed to lots of noise can feel helpless to control their environment. I had read this piece of research, and it also suggested that they give up on difficult tasks more easily - so they become "used" and "more accepting" of feeling helpless.

His session left me really looking forward to Walk to School week, and our "Sound Detectives" theme. I am sure that my new colleague Louise will do a great job of making children more aware of their aural environment.

Walk to School Conference: Emma Sheridan

2008-02-11T18:49:00.001Z

The Future of School Travel
Emma Sheridan, ModeShift

I invited Emma to speak at the conference as she is someone who I greatly admire professionally, and she is an inspirational speaker to listen to.
She is also hugely knowledgeable and influential in school travel as the chair of ModeShift (a forum for school travel professionals), Regional STA for London and she also sits on the Walk to School steering group (amongst many other hats).

Emma has been involved in the Walk to School campaign for a long time - she is one of the few people to have attended every walk to school conference - so was in a great postion to give us her thoughts on where we have come from as a sector, and more importantly where we are going.

Emma started with the doom and gloom. We all know that 2010 (when the "travelling to school initiative" comes to an end) is looming, and we could all be moping around waiting for our funding to be cut. Her point was, there have always been "nay sayers" and doom merchants, but the success of school travel has been enormous, fast and effective. Now is not the time to sit back and relax, but to look for the next opportunity and keep making ourselves indispensable.

In particular she talked about the communities that are fighting to keep their local schools open. They are now using school travel plans as part of their arsenal of weapons - and telling council leaders they have a choice: have children walking to their local school, or driving to a school miles away (and blocking up the roads).

Emma's vision is for school travel plans, and sustainable school travel, to be part of the mainstream community: "just something we do" rather than something special. Sustainable school travel is now part of so many other different agendas - eco-schools, sustainable schools, healthy schools etc. It is up to us to make sure that the people delivering these agendas locally can't do without us.

At the end of her presentation, Emma showed a beautiful sunset, and pulled out the corny line: "the futures bright, the futures orange" (maybe she was refering to our orange friend Strider?). While I can't condone the corniness, she is right - the future is bright, and it is what we make it!

Walk to School Conference: Chris Holmes

2008-02-11T17:40:00.000Z

Marketing Active Travel - the lessons that can be learnt from the National Obesity Social Marketing Campaign.
Chris Holmes, National Social Marketing Centre

Chris's was a great presentation to open the event. He really got everyone thinking about marketing behaviour change, and what it is that we are trying to do with the Walk to School campaign. His background is in food marketing, but he is now working on marketing healthy eating, and physical activity to families.

Key to his approach is getting insight into the people we are trying to influence. In particular, asking them may not be the best approach. Imagine asking someone how they travel to school. There are three possible answers for each person:

What they think you want to hear (the "right" behaviour)
What they actually think they do (their perceived behaviour)
What they actually do (their actual behaviour).

These three could be very different!

Chris and his colleagues have done a lot of research for the Department for Health looking at the behaviour of almost 3000 families, to look for the similarities and differences. This included researchers actually living with families for 72 hours to find out what people actually do (not what they think they do!). They then segmented families by their beliefs, actions and opinions, rather than by demographic information (age, sex etc). These six segments are being finalised, along with tips as to the most important drivers for their behaviour, and I will share the final results on this blog when I have them.

The important messages, for us as campaigners, were:

Parents predominantly want "happy" children. They equate "healthy" with being "not ill", rather than being "unfit".
"Healthy" is seen as a negative word by some - suggesting unhappy (what kid wants to eat "healthy" food?) and (for some) middle class.
No one likes being told what to do. Parents will, in some cases, rebel against "the man, telling us what to do". Chris illustrated this point with the parents passing burgers through the gate when Jamie Oliver introduced healthy school dinners. Someone in the audience mentioned that, since climate change and green issues have moved up the political agenda, she has found it harder to get parents to join her walking bus - again for the same reason.

He suggested the hooks we should look at are:

Happy Kids - rather than "healthy kids"
Socialising - children walking and talking with their friends, and with their parents.
Magic moments - lots of parents in their research mentioned "magic moments" as part of their own memories of physical activity (walking to school with their parents, playing football with their parents).

I have tried to summarise a very in-depth and hugely interesting presentation in not very many words! If you were at the conference I would be interested to hear your comments on what Chris had to say. Also, if you have any further questions for him, I will collect them up and we could perhaps ask them to him as a group.

Walk to School Conference: What did you think?

2008-02-11T12:43:00.000Z

If you were at the Walk to School conference, and didn't return your feedback form, you can now return it online using the wonders of Survey Monkey. Just click on the title above.

Thanks for all your feedback

Isn't it a beautiful day.

2008-02-08T10:46:00.000Z

What a beautiful day! I walked into work today feeling great - yesterday's Walk to School conference was very successful, and we have Louise starting on Monday to promote the primary school campaign. I can now really start to think about the secondary school campaign, and making it happen.

There were lots of useful things that came out of the conference yesterday. I need to think it all through, and there will be lots of blog entries coming out of it. I wanted to write a quick post, however, to greet any newcomers to the blog who found out about it at the conference.

Welcome!

Another Way to Play in Public

2008-02-01T11:29:00.000Z

I just posted that last post, and thought of another "Public Playing" example, which I think is relevant. It is Geocaching.

This involves hiding metal boxes across the country (well, the world!) and then posting the GPS coordinates for them on the web. The boxes have a record card (so you can sign that you have visited) and some "treasure" in them. You can take the treasure so long as you leave another piece of treasure in return.

I did my first cache at Christmas, and have really got into it since. I think the attraction is that there are all these secrets across the country that not everyone knows about.

Add to that the treasure hunt aspect and they are onto a winner! Most Geocaches seem to be in the countryside, but I wonder if there is a way we can bring the concept into urban areas...

The Plain Janes and public art

2008-02-01T10:30:00.000Z

I read "The Plain Janes" on the train to work this morning. I was very impressed, although some of the incidental characters were a bit weak, and the ending leaves a big gaping hole for a sequel...(which I understand is already in production)

There is a lot in it about spontaneous public art - which I am really keen on. It chimed with me as well because there is a lot on Banksy, and similar artists, in the press at the moment (see the current Time Out London)

I wanted to list a couple of my favourites, with comments where appropriate.

Origami birds in Vauxhall tunnel - near where I work
Zebra Crossing Road Sign - near my parents house in Dorset. I might (hhhmmmppph) know who did this one (it wasn't me though!).
Super Mario "Power up Boxes" in Ohio - though the police thought these were bombs and over reacted. (read the link for more).
Zombie Walks: "What do we want? Brains! When do we want them? Brains!". See also the Toronto Zombie Walk photos on Flickr

I see lots of parallels between spontaneous public art and spontaneous public gatherings (aka Flash Mobs). Both are really just people wanting to express themselves in public, and make someone smile.

It is all the more sad when authority freaks out about it (as in the Mario example, or in the Plain Janes book).

The whole point of this post I guess is that a lot of adults have lost the ability to play (particularly unstructured play), and this saddens me. Play is an important learnign tool, but it is underused in the modern world.
I appreciate we live in a dangerous world, but we also only live once - so we should enjoy it!

Oh - and anyone fancy a Zombie Walk to School? Lets face it, kids in cars are zombies first thing in the morning anyway!

Comics, manga and teen culture

2008-01-24T14:11:00.000Z

I have been reading a lot about comics recently. I didn't grow up with comics (Dorset had no comic shops) but my wife's media consumption is heavily cult - Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Sin City, V for Vendetta, Alan Moore, Frank Miller etc etc.

Through this she has gotten into comics and graphic novels, and I guess some of it has rubbed off by osmosis.

In Wednesday's Guardian, there was an article about female figures in comics, and in the comic scene. There is a definite move away from the "male fantasy" figures of Wonder Woman and the "expendable reason for revenge" roles for helpless women in distress, which is all good stuff.

The thing that really caught my eye, however, was Plain Janes - a graphic novel (by a woman) aimed at a female teen audience. The story concerns a group of girls at a school in suburbia carrying out "guerilla" art projects in their neighbourhood as a way of making their surroundings more interesting. Plain stands for "People Loving Art In Neighbourhoods". We then see the reactions of the people around the area - both good and bad. I have yet to read more than the free pages on the Minx website, but the Guardian journalist described it as "genuinely inspiring" -so I plan to get the book!

There was also a quote from 15 year old Londoner Louise Carey: "If you can draw manga now it's considered really cool in my secondary school. People who can draw in a manga style are sought after for decorating posters and designing things - the characters with the big eyes, and the hair that's all spiky and stylised. People love that."

The manga theme resurfaced in an old copy of Wired magazine (Nov 07). Wired is an American import magazine which I read obsessively every month. They did a whole issue on Manga, including the history of it in the USA and Japan. The link is a great read (but be aware you read it right to left in traditional manga style!) and explains loads of the technical details (flopped Vs unflopped, the different genres (shojo, shonen and seinen) etc)

There was also an article about the "fan fiction" and self publishing (dojinshi) surrounding manga in Japan. Imagine an exhibition at Olympia or Earls court, filled with people selling their own stories - around 300,000 books at a single exhibition - which use characters from existing comics. It is like me writing and selling a Simpsons comic, and not paying anyone to use the characters. Matt Groening's lawyers would be on me like a shot! But dojinshi is huge in Japan, and is allowed to continue. The publishers view is that the fan fiction actually creates a demand for, and promotes, the original titles.

So what has this comic and manga rant got to do with Walking to School?

I think comics and similar graphical styles could be a great way of reaching teen audiences (at least some of them!) - here are some other "educational" examples.
The lines between "author" and "reader" are now blurred by the prescence of MEdia (everyone can create their own media - which will often reference existing material)
Looking at the dojinshi provides the Manga publishers with market researchers - the biggest fans are also the ones that are writing their own material. What they think is hot, is likely to be mainstream hot in a short while.

Gaming in the UK amongst 11-15 year olds

2008-01-18T10:44:00.000Z

Flicking through the BBC's Gamers in the UK research, I was struck by how little the sustainable school travel sector are using games as a way of encouraging walking and cycling to school.

STAT ATTACK!!!!*:

97% of teens (11-15 year olds) are regular gamers - with 56% of those gamers playing every day, and 98% playing at least once a week.
45% agreed they get greater enjoyment out of gaming than any other entertainment form!
While they tend to opt for consoles first (PS2 - see *), PCs are still a second place with mobile gaming third.
63% of the group enjoyed puzzle/board games/quizzes - the biggest group of any gaming genre.

The whole document is well worth a read.

* The only downside to this research is that it was commissioned in 2005. Since then we have had the rise of myspace/bebo/facebook et al, and also the third generation (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) of computer games. These will have had an effect, the question is what. I think it is still fair to say that electronic media (and gaming) is still important to them!

Reward schemes - what we can learn from Cafe Nero

2008-01-14T15:44:00.000Z

I just read an interesting scientific paper article about reward schemes: basically the closer people are to earning a reward, the harder they try.

The example given is for coffee - buy 10 cups and get one free. As people get closer to their free cup of coffee, they speed up how often they buy coffee!

This is probably relevant to the WoW (Walk once a week scheme) too - the closer they are to earning the badge, the more likely they are to walk!

The really interesting bit was when they changed the system to make people think they were closer to the reward. Rather than "collect 10 stamps to earn a free coffee", they said "collect 12 stamps to collect a free coffee - but here are two stamps for free". Although the collectors were the same distance to their coffee (10 stamps), they acted as if they were closer to earning their reward!

SO, we could tweak WoW by giving free "WoW ticks" while simultaneously making the reward harder to earn.

What have I been up to this week?

2008-01-11T12:10:00.000Z

This week I have been mostly...running around like a blue arsed fly. I started the new job on Monday, but, because there is no-one to do the old job (primary school Walk to School) yet, I have been trying to keep that ticking over too.

On Wednesday we ran some training in London for School Travel Advisors from the East and South East of England on "school walkability audits". This is where we go out with a group of parents and children and analyse a popular route to school in depth. They look for all the things that are nice, and not so nice, on the streets and we, as facilitators, log their comments and report back. I was running one of the groups, and it always impresses me (having been on these sessions before) how different people react to them.

One of the biggest challenges in the area we were looking at (near moorfields eye hospital) was the amount of "stuff" on the street - A boards, bins, motorbikes etc. There was also a lot of street furniture (lamp posts, phone boxes etc). We are so used to walking round them we often don't think "does this really have to be here?".

On Thursday I thought I'd just "pop in" to BETT, - the education technology show at Olympia. Five hours later I managed to leave - knackered but very inspired. The show is free, so if you get the chance to go, do! I met some very inspiring people - the guys who run infomapper.com were there (it lets you plot routes to school on an online ordnance survey map, then share the results), as well as truetube.co.uk - a sort of moderated documentary Youtube but with debates for schools - really cool!

I was also chatting with the sales guys from Quark (a desktop design and layout package) and Adobe (who make Photoshop) about how I might be able to use their products to work with schools.

Finally, just before I left, I went to a really good session about the use of gaming in education. There were four members on the panel:

Derek Robertson from Learning and Teaching Scotland who went into schools with DS's to get the pupils to analyse the games - for instance learning about forensics from Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney!
Alice Taylor from Channel 4 who (I believe) are going to not be making any more "schools programming" for TV, but are (instead) going to be investing in educational games. Although most of their output has been/is through web based games, they are also looking at delivery through Xbox live, and the other online gaming platforms. She has moved to C4 from the BBC where she carried out research into gamers and their media habits.
Gobion Rowlands (an educational games developer). He pointed out the role that teachers have in games - most of them are not gamers, and don't like being shown up by the pupils! As someone who once showed his history teacher how to use a fax machine (the teacher thought the piece of paper physically went into the phone line, and was perturbed when it kept coming out!), I know where he was coming from!
Aleks Grotowski. She is a journalist and researcher (she is also working on a PHD) who had some very interesting things to say about the role of computer games, and play more generally, in talking with teens. You can see her blog, admire her hair, and read her take on the session here:

I have also been ill - snotty and horrible! I blame the teachers I bumped into at BETT!

My First Post!

2008-01-11T12:03:00.000Z

Hello. Is there anybody there?

Probably not! Seeing as no-one knows I am here yet. That's OK though - I have to start somewhere.

My idea is that, by documenting the development of our new Walk to Secondary School campaign online, people can get a feel for where it is heading and - more importantly - help me to make it better.

It also gives me a chance to play with some ideas before I actually spend money on them! So wish me luck!

Andrew