Community Engagement Project of the Year – This award recognises projects and initiatives for travel in communities, developed by individuals and groups to promote and encourage active and sustainable travel. Projects can include those that involve multi-stranded elements of sustainable travel, e.g. Green Travel Weeks.

Project name: Community Influencers

Organisation: Lambeth Council and Peddle My Wheels

Lambeth Council partnered with Peddle My Wheels to supply up to 30 residents (Influencers) with a free bike with accessories, cycle training to build their confidence, and cover them for maintenance and insurance so that they can get on with enjoying their bike.

The aim of the programme is to support residents who are traditionally underrepresented in cycling or who experience barriers to access, to ensure that all of Lambeth’s residents are reflected equally in our promotion of active travel. Our influencers will join us for community events, and local rides, and will be part of a media campaign to promote cycling in Lambeth within their own community

Project name: Go Cycle and Scoot

Organisation: WMCA

Our West Midlands Cycle Hire (WMCH) scheme is made up of 205 docking stations across the West Midlands, with pedal bikes, e-bikes and e-scooters available to residents and those visiting the region. This project offers a month of free travel on the WMCH scheme to deprived communities, and those who are moving from unemployment to work, enabling them to access opportunities if they don’t own a suitable working bike or are struggling with the cost of travel.

To enable long term behaviour, change and provide an accessible offer that can be monitored and evaluated, each customer will be able to access one code for 300* minutes for cycle or scooting use costing a total of £32 per customer. *600 minutes for those just using a pedal bike.

Project name: Influencing Travel Behaviour
Organisation: Leeds City Council

Between Monday the 24th and Friday the 28th June 2024, the Influencing Travel Behaviour (ITB) team led a ‘Week of Action’ around road safety for Bankside Primary School and the local community. This initiative was developed in partnership with the school and West Yorkshire Police following staff raising concerns about road safety for pupils and parents in the area. The purpose of the week of action was to raise awareness of road safety, our vision zero strategy and reduce traffic congestion outside the school gates.

This award recognises projects and initiatives for travel to and between education providers, developed by individuals and groups to promote and encourage sustainable travel. Projects can include those that involve multi-stranded elements of sustainable travel, e.g. Green Travel Weeks.

Project name: Dalton school – improving safety and our environment

Organisation: Dalton Junior and Infant school & Kirklees council

The pupils at Dalton Junior and Infant school wanted to make a change to the environment and safety outside and around their school. They were fed up with not being able to walk to school without being worried about parked car and crossing the road, fed up with not being able to ride their scooters because it wasn’t safe; fed up with walking through smoke and vape fumes and they wanted to see more trees and flowers that would make their environment nicer.

The pupils explored the issues that were affecting pupils safety and the environment around school by mind mapping, they the expanded what they had found to form categories that they could evolve into working projects and then develop in to campaigns. The pupils asked their ward Cllr’s to support their projects by providing funding to run their campaigns.

The outcome was 5 projects that were pupil led, that were driven by pupil voice and involved the whole school community.

Project name: Lowestoft Bike Library Project @ Phoenix St Peter Academy

Organisation: The Way to Go Suffolk (Suffolk County Council), Scottish Power Renewables, the Rotary Club of Lowestoft East Point, Lowestoft Rising, Mandarin Cycles and Asda.

Phoenix St Peter Academy in South Lowestoft is leading a cycling revolution for year 5 & 6 children and their families with a bike library initiative. Each year 5 & 6 pupil at the school has been given the opportunity to have a bike and related safety equipment funded by key partnerships with Scottish Power Renewables, the Rotary Club of Lowestoft East Point, Lowestoft Rising, Mandarin Cycles and Asda. The 26 children from this deprived area of Lowestoft are embarking on a greener, healthier future for their families. There had previously been no ethos of cycling at the school so few children had bikes and bikeability training courses had not taken place at the school.

Since the pupils have so enthusiastically embraced the bike library scheme all pupils have been trained to Bikeability Level 2. The children have gained such confidence and skills that they are now able to ride their bikes in the local community as well as on their journey to school. Families have been invited into the school to learn how to complete regular checks and basic maintenance on their bikes with a local bike mechanic.

To launch the scheme last October we walked the bikes to the seafront where we found that some of the pupils had never ridden a bike before and were struggling to pedal and get their balance. Every child was supportive of those children and the encouragement was absolutely fantastic. One competent young cyclist put her bike down so that she could walk beside a lad who was struggling, giving him tips and encouragement all the way.

During the summer holidays the bikes returned by the year 6 pupils who are moving on to high school will be cleaned, checked and any repairs completed before the new year 5 pupils start the new school year by completing their bikeability training on the bikes.

Project name: Main Road School Street Improvements

Organisation: London Borough of Islington

Islington Council’s School Streets programme is improving the environment outside primary schools on main roads through features including pavement widening, greening and safer crossings. These changes aim to improve road safety, encouraging more students and their parents/carers to travel actively to school. Over the past two years, improvements have been delivered at five primary schools across the borough with the latest project for this year at Christ the King Primary School. Across the borough, we have transformed school environments by extending footways to increase space for people walking and planting new greenery including trees and drought-resistant, pollutant absorbing plants. Each scheme is unique, reflecting the multi-phased engagement carried out with students and the school community to address specific concerns related to pollution, road safety and the public realm at that site.

Project name: Santa Challenge

Organisation: Central Bedfordshire Council

Brief Description: We hold the Santa Challenge competition in November/ December. which is offered to all lower and primary schools in Central Bedfordshire. The challenge is a virtual race where every active journey to school made by pupils and their parents counts as one virtual mile to Santa’s home in Lapland. We provide the schools with resources: a launch assembly, a message from Santa about the importance of active travel and briefing notes with class record sheets.

Each morning of the challenge, pupils record their active travel. All journeys at the school are combined to see whether they have reached their goal of achieving two thousand miles (the equivalent distance from Central Bedfordshire to Lapland). At the end of the challenge, each school is given a prize scooter for one lucky pupil.

The aim is to reduce the number of cars on the school run and to continue to give pupils the opportunity to learn about the many benefits of ’active travel’ to school during the winter months, alongside the importance of staying safe.

This award recognises projects and initiatives delivered within healthcare settings, developed by individuals and groups to promote, and encourage active and sustainable travel. Projects can include those that involve multi-stranded elements of sustainable travel, e.g. Green Travel Weeks.

Project name: Foundry PCN / University of Sheffield Greener practice project

Organisation: NHS Foundry PCN, Greener Practice, University of Sheffield Medical School

Foundry PCN worked with 3rd year medical students in Sheffield to gain Modeshift accreditation for 8 GP practices, across 10 sites. The students worked with Clinical leads & practice managers to understand the needs of over 200 employees in the network, creating a plan for other PCNs in the ICB work, feeding into the ICB Green Plan refresh.

The students also visited Sheffield cycling for all & met people with disabilities & health conditions & learnt how adapted cycles had helped them & their carers. They learnt about social factors & the importance of independence & movement that cannot be found in medical text books or placements on hospital wards.

In a short period of 6 weeks, we were able to get initial accreditation for all sites & have started the PCN on their sustainable travel journey. Foundry PCN has started its first travel surgery working with Better Points, to offer incentives for completion. Better points currently have a contract with Sheffield city council, this is providing a template for how projects can coordinate & amplify the work they are doing

Project name: Mode Shift May – Sustainability Team at SFT

Organisation: Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust

During the month of May 2024, the Sustainability Team at Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust encouraged drivers to change their mode of travel to reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality. Also promoting the wider benefits of money saved and improved wellbeing. A month long campaign saw large format signage and digital comms across Salisbury NHS to heavily promote Mode shift May, and each week the Sustainability Team found a way to thank those taking part, and those already partaking in sustainable travel, either by waiting at bus stops with boxes of chocolates for those stepping on/off, handing coffee vouchers to walkers at the hospital entrances, or attaching thank you notes to handlebars.

The team held various information stands within the hospital, offering advice and encouragement, welcoming questions and ideas about things that could help our staff switch one of their solo driving days to another mode. Change is always hard, of course, but many staff were up for the challenge and had their efforts shared and celebrated in Trust comms.

Project name: Sheffield Teaching Hospitals – BetterPoints

Organisation: Sheffield Teaching Hospitals

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals partnered with Modeshift and the BetterPoints Sheffield programme to: incentivise their Travel Survey and reward sustainable travel; get data on how colleagues are arriving at the Trust’s sites; provide on-site incentives for sustainable travel by listing hot drink vouchers for colleagues to buy with their BetterPoints. This linked in with the Trust’s ‘Choose to Reuse’ sustainability drive.

The project aimed, through a new collaboration, to address a problem that had been evident within the Modeshift scheme in reaching higher levels of response to Healthcare surveys.The project formed a part of the city-wide BetterPoints Sheffield behaviour change and rewards programme commissioned by Sheffield City Council, which after six months had over 10,000 registered users, switched over 800,000 car trips and saved over 400 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

This award recognises and celebrates the efforts being made by individuals and groups to work in partnership with education providers, businesses and community groups, to promote and encourage active and sustainable travel.

Project name: Manchester City Matchday Buses

Organisation: Transport for Greater Manchester and Manchester City Football Club

The Etihad Stadium, home of Manchester City Football Club, is situated just under 2 miles from Manchester city centre. Fixtures at the Etihad attract just under 54,000 supporters, locally, nationally, and internationally. On a matchday the area around the Etihad Stadium sees an increase in congestion on the highway, with 67% of supporters travelling to fixtures by private car, with the existing public transport system also at capacity.  We quickly concluded that we needed to introduce a bespoke bus option for fans travelling to and from games.  For part of the 2023/24 season, Manchester City trialled a new large-scale bus network in partnership with Transport for Greater Manchester. In total, the Matchday bus network saw 17 different routes operating across 100 stops, covering a combined total of more than 340 miles.

Project name: Pedro Club Cycle Hub

Organisation: Pedro Club, My Choice, Kings Park Moving Together, Sustrans

Pedro Club Cycle Hub have been working in partnership with My Choice to provide much needed cycle services in Hackney, offering free cycle skills tuition, led rides, bike raffles, and a central community hub for all activities. Alongside this, Sustrans have been working with Kings Park Moving Together and Pedro Club to create a plan for further developments within the club, with a view to creating a self-sustaining model. The Hub is well loved, and its successes are a direct result of the dedication and passion of these four partner organisations working together for a common goal, with the interests of the community at the forefront of every decision.

Project name: Alwoodley Walk to School Week – Living Streets, Alwoodley Climate Action, Leeds City Council et al

Organisation: Living Streets

Living Streets worked with partners in Alwoodley, Leeds, to encourage families in seven schools to pledge to switch to walking or cycling to school for Walk to School Week and beyond. We ran assemblies and school gate events to get families excited about the scheme, and Bike MOTs were provided free by a local bike shop to 450 kids’ bikes in April. ‘WOW’ badges were given to kids who logged their travel regularly, with ‘Pledge’ badges for kids whose parents’ made pledges.

This award recognises projects and initiatives developed by any Team Modeshift member, be that an individual, team, or organisation within education, business, or community settings, to promote and encourage active travel.  Projects can include all active travel modes including walking, cycling, and scooting.

Project name: Cycle Security Measures – Transport for West Midlands

Organisation: West Midlands Combined Authority

Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) delivered cycle security measures as part of their Active Travel Behaviour Change Programme. Events were delivered across the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). In total 49 Cycle Security Measure events were delivered to communities in the West Midlands. The project delivered minor repairs to bikes, security etching and a complimentary standard D-Lock in Ward areas linked to deprivation.

Sustrans were commissioned to deliver the Cycle Security Sessions. Project Officers worked with Local Authorities and stakeholders to organise and plan each session. In Summer 2023 the focus for events was joining pre-planned community activities. During the Autumn and Winter months the focus moved to engaging schools, colleges, and workplaces.

This project demonstrated inclusivity and was equality and diversity driven as it had key priority wards to target which covered the top 20% of wards in areas of deprivation, propensity to cycle tool, existing infrastructure, demographics and physical inactivity levels. In addition, the activities were focused to benefit black and ethnic minority people, disabled people, women, older people and unemployed people.

We are now utilising future funding to further deliver a programme of Cycle Security Measures events to continue to run events in communities where there are active travel infrastructure improvements.

Project name: Exceeding the number of SEND (Special Education Needs and Disabilities) Cycle Training

Organisation: Hertfordshire County Council

Brief Description: In 2023 the original target for training SEND pupils was 500, however the training provided by Hertfordshire County Council’s Cycling, Walking and Wheeling Team and Hertfordshire Disability Sports Foundation exceeded this target to 1600 places.

Sessions with children take place during the school holidays and are offered on a one to one basis, sometimes even two instructors to one child if needed. This allows each session to be tailored to the child’s individual requirements, making it as relevant for them as possible. Children are able to develop their skills at the pace that is right for them to meet their specific needs. It’s also based around having fun and enjoyment, helping the children to build their confidence and self-esteem.

This training was publicised in a press release and was also mentioned on BBC Three Counties Radio. ‘Children with Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND), are being given specialist cycle training so they too can be part of Sustrans ‘Big Walk and Wheel’ in March 2023. The ‘Big Walk and Wheel’ is the UK’s biggest walking, wheeling, scooting and cycling challenge for school children’

Project name: Inpatient Therapies team, Southampton

Organisation: Solent NHS Trust (soon to become Hampshire & IOW Healthcare NHS Trust)

A sustainable quality improvement initiative was carried out whereby patient Access Visits were completed almost exclusively by bicycle or e-bike, instead of cars, for a period of 12 months. Two occupational therapists participated in the improvement initiative,which resulted in a total of 647 miles travelled by cycle, reducing Trust mileage reimbursement costs and carbon emissions for those journeys by 67% and 95%, respectively.

Assessment of a patient’s home environment is often necessary and usually done by car. However, this has significant financial, ecological, and health costs to the Trust, its workforce and local communities. Use of active transport by NHS staff can provide many benefits in ensuring timely, efficient health care is delivered. It can also reduce costs to the individual and the Trust, minimise environmental impact, and promote community wellness.

The Aim of the project was to determine the impacts on cost and carbon emissions of replacing cars with bicycles for patient Access Visits in the community by 2 occupational therapists over a period of 12 months.

Project name: Richard Baker-Jones

Organisation: Alverstoke CoE Junior School

Richard Baker-Jones represents the model and epitome of a Travel Champion, and a real stalwart for Alverstoke CoE Junior School, and the field of active travel. For over 20 years, Richard has engaged with the pupils at the school to promote cycle training and skills, road safety and wider active travel messages, including air quality. No matter what has been on offer, Richard has always embraced everything on offer including Bike It, WOW, JRSO, SRAs, Histrionics assemblies and much more and has finally led to the school being awarded Outstanding STARS accreditation, having started on it in 2015! Richard is no longer a Governor or has children at the school, but due to his passion and care for his community and the children in it, he is a real ambassador for active and safer travel.

Given active travel has been supported at the school for over 20 years, sustainability is core within the school and demonstrated longevity through pupil representation by each year group’s Travel Ambassadors. Richard hasn’t just tried to deliver initiatives alone, but rather find a long-term way to put children at the heart of these key messages through their TA programme, and recruiting from Yr3. Campaigns/programmes are delivered regularly across the year, so they become part of the culture and ethos of the school.

This award recognises and celebrates individuals or organisations who have delivered projects and initiatives that have shown innovation in the promotion of sustainable and active travel.  Submissions will be assessed based on the project or initiative’s originality, impact, scalability and sustainability benefits.

Project name: Fleet Cycle Project

Organisation: The Bikeability Trust

The Bikeability Trust identified that one of the barriers for children learning to ride a cycle was the lack of access to a well maintained cycle, this is thought to have increased since the cost of living crisis. A YouGov poll in Aug 2023 indicated 37% of children don’t have their own cycle.

In order to provide more Bikeability training for children, we knew we had to improve access to cycles. Using funding from Department of Transport, the Trust purchased 1,124 cycles for Bikeability trainers to use as fleet cycles, taking them out to schools and communities for children to learn to ride. This has resulted in the cycles being used over 16,000 times with at least that many children being able to start their cycling journey, not just learning this life skill but helping to build a cycling culture in schools and communities.

Project name: Kirklees council – Road Safety & Yorkshire Ambulance service Charity

Organisation: Kirklees council & Yorkshire Ambulance service Charity

Brief Description: Train the trainer – Active First Aid project was designed to train our team to deliver first aid sessions in a school setting. The goal was to give pupils’ the skills and knowledge to learn first aid to help them help others if they come across a accident when traveling independently or playing out with friends.

The project was developed with Yorkshire Ambulance Service & Yorkshire Ambulance Service Charity who worked with us to design a program that met the requirements of first aid and delivered age-appropriate skills and knowledge to pupils and give parents the confidence to let their child travel actively and play out knowing that their child has the skills to help someone if an accident occurred.

The outcome of the project is to give pupils the confidence to help others if an accident happened. The pupils learn how to assess a scene, how to call for help, find out what the problem is and how to treat the patient with what they have on them. They also learn how to undertake CPR.

Project name: Matchday Buses

Organisation: Transport for Greater Manchester and Manchester City Football Club

The Etihad Stadium, home of Manchester City Football Club, is situated just under 2 miles from Manchester city centre. Fixtures at the Etihad attract just under 54,000 supporters, locally, nationally, and internationally. On a matchday the area around the Etihad Stadium sees an increase in congestion on the highway, with 67% of supporters travelling to fixtures by private car, with the existing public transport system also at capacity.  We quickly concluded that we needed to introduce a bespoke bus option for fans travelling to and from games.  For part of the 2023/24 season, Manchester City trialled a new large-scale bus network in partnership with Transport for Greater Manchester. In total, the Matchday bus network saw 17 different routes operating across 100 stops, covering a combined total of more than 340 miles.

Project name: Santa Challenge

Organisation: Central Bedfordshire Council

We hold the Santa Challenge competition in November/ December. which is offered to all lower and primary schools in Central Bedfordshire. The challenge is a virtual race where every active journey to school made by pupils and their parents counts as one virtual mile to Santa’s home in Lapland. We provide the schools with resources: a launch assembly, a message from Santa about the importance of active travel and briefing notes with class record sheets.

Each morning of the challenge, pupils record their active travel. All journeys at the school are combined to see whether they have reached their goal of achieving two thousand miles (the equivalent distance from Central Bedfordshire to Lapland). At the end of the challenge, each school is given a prize scooter for one lucky pupil.

The aim is to reduce the number of cars on the school run and to continue to give pupils the opportunity to learn about the many benefits of ’active travel’ to school during the winter months, alongside the importance of staying safe.

This award recognises an individual who has shown exceptional growth and promise, and who has demonstrated excellence in their work, the industry and amongst their peers.

Project name: Aya Collins, Operations Director

Organisation: Smart Transport Hub

Aya is an exceptional individual who has consistently demonstrated outstanding dedication, commitment, and talent in her field. Since joining Smart Transport Hub in 2023 Aya has diversified the company’s service offer and grown its workforce, while supporting existing and nurturing new colleagues. Aya has achieved all of this through creating a strong sense of team spirit and passion amongst team members to deliver excellence in all they do.

Aya has consistently pursued growth and development throughout her career, always embracing responsibility and actively seeking personal improvement. Her commitment to continuously improving and developing the knowledge and expertise of her team, the wider company and colleagues reflects her tireless dedication to the industry.

She has continued to champion the delivery of mode shift and active travel projects through unique partnership working with colleagues and clients. Examples of this include her work with multiple Local Authorities delivering projects with a key focus on active travel and sustainable transport, this includes the London Boroughs of Camden, Islington, Redbridge, Lambeth, Harrow, Havering, and Ealing, and also Liverpool and Kent.

Project name: Elizabeth Evans

Organisation: Smarter Travel Ltd

The nomination for the Rising STAR Award is Elizabeth Evans. Elizabeth started with Smarter Travel Ltd (ST Ltd) in July 2023, as a Travel Plan Coordinator (TPC).

In the last year, Elizabeth has shown much determination and passion for the role, in delivering the sustainable travel and mode shift messages to the masses. Over the year, Elizabeth has grasped the TPC role, after coming from a tourism career and also employment focused on making zero carbon commuting a reality. She has transformed the ST Ltd work practices to accord and integrate the message to residents of new development in a much more direct and targeted fashion.

Her passion for the role has accelerated her professional progression gaining associate membership of the CIHT and also moving into a role of a Senior TPC. By leading the team and forming strong relationships with clients and staff, the ST Ltd business has grown and developed residents travel habits for the benefit of national emission reduction.

Project name: Laura Fish

Organisation: Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Laura Fish works tirelessly to promote active and sustainable travel to the NHS staff that she works with. Laura treats it as much more than a job role, taking personal ownership of many of the issues and opportunities that the NHS are involved in. As an NHS employee, Laura tries innovation all the time, encouraging sustainable travel choices through dedicated route planning, referring people to cycle loan schemes and trying to ensure hospitals have good, quality infrastructure that supports their diverse staff.

Project name: Samuel Dillon

Organisation: Lambeth Council

Samuel Dillon joined Lambeth Council last year and has played a pivotal role in shaping and progressing Lambeth Council’s £1.7m School Streets Expansion programme. This is the first time Samuel has worked directly for a local authority. He worked previously with the Active Travel Team on projects over the lockdown period as a Healthy Streets Officer via Sustrans. His infectious passion for active travel helped him to be chosen for the School Streets Manager role.

Over the past eight months, Samuel has successfully implemented 15 School Streets under experimental traffic orders, with a plan to deliver all of the planned 33 by November 2015.

When the programme is complete, 85% of Lambeth primary schools will have School Streets. This will see a reduction of road danger, reducing congestion, and improving air quality. He has gone the extra mile, formulating School Streets Plus which takes School Streets to the next level and has been awarded funding.

Samuel’s pragmatic and agile approach, coupled with his dedication to community engagement and sustainable travel, has made a transformative impact on the local environment and children’s wellbeing.

This award recognises a team or organisation for the successful delivery of sustainable travel solutions for those attending a mid to large size venue or event during the last 12 months.  Submissions must show how active and sustainable travel was considered before, during, and after the occasion/location in question. Mid to large size means an occasion/location attracting 5,000 or more fans/spectator/audience at one time and can relate to the sports, entertainment, cultural or related sector.

Project name: Dragons RFC – Eco Dragons campaign

Organisation: Dragons RFC

Dragons RFC launched an ‘Eco Dragons’ campaign for the 2023/24 season at Rodney Parade – with a key focus on transport and improving the way supporters travelled to games at Rodney Parade. Surveys carried out over a number of seasons identified that a lack of fans were using public transport to make the journey on match days.

We rolled out several initiatives over the season to change attitudes and perceptions around trave choices and were delighted by the response and pick-up from fans. From the installation of electric car charging stations to offering free travel on the local bus network and championing electric bike usage, we managed to make a huge impact at zero cost to the business.

To give the campaign momentum, we teamed up with partners including Pledgeball, who gave fans an online platform to visually take a stand on sustainability. Fans went online and pledged to save 55,240.90 kg CO2e – the equivalent to taking 12.3 cars off the road – for our first game. By our final game of the season fans showed their appetite for the campaign by pledging to save 609,479.00 kg CO2e – the equivalent to taking 132.49 cars off the road. In total they pledged to save 1,193,107.90 kg CO2e – the equivalent to taking 259.66 cars off the road.

Project name: Manchester City Matchday Buses

Organisation: Transport for Greater Manchester and Manchester City Football Club

The Etihad Stadium, home of Manchester City Football Club, is situated just under 2 miles from Manchester city centre. Fixtures at the Etihad attract just under 54,000 supporters, locally, nationally, and internationally. On a matchday the area around the Etihad Stadium sees an increase in congestion on the highway, with 67% of supporters travelling to fixtures by private car, with the existing public transport system also at capacity.  We quickly concluded that we needed to introduce a bespoke bus option for fans travelling to and from games.  For part of the 2023/24 season, Manchester City trialled a new large-scale bus network in partnership with Transport for Greater Manchester. In total, the Matchday bus network saw 17 different routes operating across 100 stops, covering a combined total of more than 340 miles.

Project name: Watford FC + Lowr Sustainable Fan Travel partnership

Organisation: Watford FC and Lowr

Watford FC launched a white-labelled version of Lowr in January, allowing fans to log their travel, analyse their habits, and calculate their carbon footprints. The gamified platform encouraged sustainable travel choices through monthly prizes. This initiative significantly engaged fans, with over 3,700 journeys logged and fans reporting attitudinal changes regarding sustainability since using the platform. By promoting eco-friendly travel options, Watford FC has taken a pioneering step in fostering sustainability among its supporters.

This award recognises teams that have made a significant contribution to sustainable travel locally or nationally.

Project name: Brightwayz staff and volunteers

Organisation: Brightwayz

Brightwayz social enterprise is a long-standing friend and partner of Modeshift. This year the team at Brightwayz celebrated their 20th anniversary – marking two decades of supporting and promoting safe, active, sustainable travel for all with their products, projects and information.

The team have helped schools, local authorities, charities and businesses across the UK to make thousands of active travel campaigns a success – not just with products but also with information and by sharing good practice through their blogs, website, publications, presentations and general advocacy.

The team’s face to face projects in North Northamptonshire where they are based have enabled them to help create an active travel culture in their local area too. Their Get Down to Town Kettering project was the first ever Modeshift accredited town centre travel plan.

The whole team gets involved in their community events – showing active travel is in the Brightwayz DNA.

Project name: Modeshift STARS Team

Organisation: Hertfordshire County Council

The Spring Term was extremely short with only 11 weeks in total. During this time, the Modeshift STARS team delivered 105 Road Safety initiatives to 37 primary schools across the county. These initiatives were presented to 2310 pupils. They are designed to provide pupils with the knowledge and skills to keep themselves safe whilst travelling actively, now and in the future.

This period has been one of the most successful since Hertfordshire County Council began using Modeshift STARS for school travel plans. A new record for accredited travel plans was set with 26 travel plans submitted this term. All the expiring accredited travel plans for this period were renewed and this is the first time this has ever happened. This demonstrates schools’ commitment to their travel plans and affirms the solid relationships built between the Sustainable Travel Officers and the schools.

Project name: The Bikeability Trust Team

Organisation: The Bikeability Trust

The Bikeability Trust team are a small group of people who work tirelessly to support an industry which delivers cycle training to almost half a million children a year. They are passionate about what they do, believing that no child leaves school without the knowledge, confidence and opportunity to cycle. They work with instructors, training providers and local authorities to ensure quality cycle training is provided ensuring the next generation benefit from a healthier lifestyle in a more sustainable environment. The team has worked hard to ensure cycle training is accessible to everyone, introducing SEND training for instructors and reducing all possible barriers

to participation. They strive for innovation to reach more people with positive cycling stories running national campaigns such as Cycle to School Week and have created a Celebration of Bikeability to recognise those amazing stories and encourage others to get cycling too.

Project name: The Feet First: Walking Training team

Organisation: Surrey County Council

Since Feet First: Walking Training launched in 2022, the course has trained more than 13,000 pupils in over 120 primary schools across Surrey. Contributing directly to Surrey’s mission of ‘no-one left behind’.

The course provides inclusive and valuable road safety awareness skills, both in the classroom and on the road, empowering Year 3 pupils to safely walk or wheel to and from school. The course would not be possible without our team of Walking Instructors, who meticulously train and inspire pupils to travel actively every day.

With increased usage of Surrey’s network at peak times, it is more important than ever for pupils to have the necessary life skills to navigate the roads safely, whilst encouraging families to actively travel to school. Feet First empowers not only the pupils but also the parents and schools to feel confident in their pupil’s ability to be alert and safe on the roads. Whilst also supporting Surrey’s mission of tackling health inequality, enabling a greener future and empowering our communities.

This award recognises individuals that have made a significant contribution to sustainable travel locally or nationally and the winner will be announced during the Awards evening.

This award recognises individuals that have made a significant contribution to sustainable travel locally or nationally and the winner will be announced during the Awards evening.