Case Study: ATA’s Love to Ride

Our Active Travel Ambassador (ATA) programme, empowers students to create behaviour change campaigns promoting active travel within their schools. Currently, the programme is engaged with 85 schools across England, reaching over 92,000 students!

Before launching their campaigns, student Active Travel Ambassadors conduct research to determine their focus. The Love to Ride app, particularly its community maps, has been valuable in this process by helping to identify areas of concern regarding safe cycling in their communities.

The Love to Ride platform has been crucial in promoting active travel. Its community mapping feature has assisted in pinpointing safe routes and supporting initiatives like Park and Stride campaigns in Bristol. These campaigns encourage parents and carers to park away from schools and walk the remaining distance, reducing traffic congestion and enhancing road safety.

Data from Love to Ride has corroborated findings from interviews with students and staff, strengthening the rationale for targeted interventions. For instance, both interviews and community feedback indicated a specific road as a safety concern, marked in red on the maps due to users feeling “stressed” about biking there.

‘The tool is brilliant and incredibly helpful. Any evidence that our ATA schools can gather to support the issues and barriers they are facing is invaluable. The evidence from the Love to Ride community maps not only strengthens their pitch presentations but also enhances support from both the schools and the local communities, making for even more impactful ATA campaigns.’— Steph, ATA Coordinator

When asked about the maps, School Champion Bobby reflects ‘It’s another great thing we can add to our ATA park & stride promotion to encourage parents to park away and not bring their cars so close to school.’ – Bobby, Fairfield ATA School Champion

Additionally, four schools are actively promoting Love to Ride among staff, fostering friendly competition and a community spirit while encouraging a shift towards more sustainable travel choices.

All Active Travel Ambassador campaigns lead to effective initiatives, contributing to the schools’ accredited Modeshift STARS Travel Plans and creating real world modal shift!

To find out more about the ATA Programme, visit Active Travel Ambassadors – Modeshift STARS and to hear more about school travel planning see Education – Modeshift STARS!