Walking group promoting active and sustainable travel

We caught up with The Braveheart Association in Bonnybridge to find out how they are incorporating active and sustainable travel into Health Walks.

Members of The Braveheart Association Health Walk

Eva Finalyson, Health Walk Coordinator said:

We were really keen to promote active travel to everyone throughout Braveheart, specifically the walkers. We started off by promoting the benefits of active travel to everyone and giving them really key information to help empower them to help make a change.

This project, like many, received funding from our Smarter Choices Smarter Places Open Fund, which aims to encourage people to change their everyday travel behaviours. The awarded funding can help deliver activities to promote active and sustainable travel as part of everyday personal journeys. 

Most of Braveheart’s Health Walks begin near or next to a bus route. 

Braveheart supports those taking part with information and bus timetables to get to their chosen walks. As part of the project, members were also provided walking diaries to help motivate individuals to walk more - not just to their Health Walks but also to encourage walking, wheeling and cycling for everyday travelling throughout everyday life.

For Health Walk projects looking to incorporate active and sustainable travel Eva suggests doing a survey to find out what people know of active travel and any barriers that can then be addressed through the project. Eva continues:

What’s worked well for our project is getting the buy-in from volunteers, to help promote active and sustainable travel. They have been fantastic in pushing this forward and the walkers have been really interested in finding out more and taking our ideas and emphasis on active travel on board.

You can find out more about The Braveheart Association here.

Watch the Braveheart Health Walk and Active Travel video.

Find out more about ‘Making everyday journeys more active

To apply for a grant from our Smarter Choices, Smarter Choices Open Fund, supported by Transport Scotland, click here.