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How to promote active travel in your organisation 

Workplaces, schools and local governments are ideal settings to promote active travel. Walking, scooting and riding bikes are all healthy, accessible and inexpensive alternatives to the car for short trips that many organisations promote to encourage healthy living to staff, clients and visitors. Weve collated our top tips to get more people using active travel in your organisation.

Encouraging active travel for getting to and from work and trips made during the workday is a great way to help employees include physical activity in their daily routine. Some of the benefits include:

  • Reducing transport costs by saving on fuel and car maintenance
  • Easing pressure on car parking at your organisation
  • Increased productivity and higher staff engagement
  • Promoting employee health and wellbeing
  • Reduced absence due to illness
  • Reducing the environmental impact of your organisation.
Image of people walking and riding bikes

Top 5 ideas for promoting active travel in your organisation.

  1. Keep it fun, include a ride to work or even an ‘active transport’ breakfast in the organisation calendar of health and wellness events
  2. Keep staff informed, add content and links about active travel (including links to the Your Move website) to the intranet health and wellness page
  3. Give people an incentive to change, if your organisation offers a wellness or gym allowance, consider adjusting it to include purchase of walking and cycling gear (like shoes or a bicycle)
  4. Motivate them, how about organising a staff walking or cycling challenge? Or even getting a corporate team together for one of Perth’s many community cycling or walking events?
  5. Make it possible, by providing them with the facilities they need to use active transport. This can be as simple as providing workplace SmartRiders or as complex as installing brand new showers, lockers and bike parking facilities.

More ideas for promoting bike riding at your organisation.

Build a supportive culture

Regular riders are your best resources and can offer advice about facilities and managing work clothes, ride with novices through a ‘bicycle buddies’ scheme, assist with journey planning and answer questions about riding safely in traffic.

Management endorsement

Employees need to know that their decision to cycle to work will be supported and that there is no stigma attached to riding. Management can show support by having a flexible approach to working hours and by getting involved with ride to work events. 

Provide information on active travel

Making information available on riding to your organisation can help employees and visitors consider this option and plan their trips.   Information could be provided for new and existing staff including building access guides, local maps which show cycling routes, and the new Multi-modal Your Move Journey Planner . If your organisation is outside of the Perth metro area, there are also maps available for some regional centres. Check out our resources page.

Commuters going to work

Promote existing events and active challenges 

Join in with campaigns such as WA Bike Month and Ride2Work Day held in October. These activities all provide opportunities to promote cycling through free workplace events and/or team participation in challenges and community rides. 

Walking events can be a good way to encourage people to discover walking facilities and mix with other walkers in the workplace. 

Events can tie into broader workplace and community initiatives, such as an annual fitness challenge, or corporate participation in charity events such as the annual City to Surf or HBF Run for a Reason. 

Challenges are also a great way to kick start walking habits because it’s a short timeframe, its easy to monitor progress and an affordable option for workplaces to run.

Promote your own events and programs

Promote your initiatives through posters, information boards, brochures, newsletters, and online communications (intranet and internet).  Use activities to address barriers staff may have to cycling, help staff build new skills, and to keep it fun and social. 

Use staff profiles to motivate staff

Find out about successful walkers and why they do it. What are their motivations for walking more in their working day and what benefits have they achieved? Inspire people by using profiles of what colleagues have achieved.

Offer incentives

An incentive can nudge those thinking about it to give it a go. Incentives can include a bike breakfast, an ‘earn-a-bike’ initiative, or a scheme that provides frequent riders with rewards based on either trips or distance cycled.

Start a BUG (Bicycle User Groups)

A BUG can be formed to bring together employees who cycle to support activities at your organisation, keep members informed, and advocate for better facilities. See the Bicycle network BUG guide 

Start a walking group

Group walking helps with motivation and enjoyable getting people to walk regularly. 

Walking groups can be informal or more organised, depending on the needs of participants. Check out the Heart Foundation walking website for more details

Promote walking routes

Map walking routes around your organisation to encourage walking for fun and fitness.

Take a look at the variety of Your Move maps available on the resources page for your local area or ask us about creating a ‘Workplace Access guide’. 

Walking Meetings and Walking to Meetings

Make the streets your meeting room and get people out of the office with a walking meeting. Walking increases energy and the ability to think clearly – increasing productivity. 

You might also hold your meeting outside the office for an opportunity to get some steps in on your way to a meeting. 

Public Transport

Walking, scooting and riding is an integral part of the journey for regular public transport users. Check out the Transperth Journey planner to find out how easy it is to get there.

More ideas:

  • Check out the Live Lighter Workplace Health guide for tips on getting your workplace wellness initiative started or to take it to the next level
  • Check out our How To guides on promoting public transport
  • Read stories about what other organisations are doing.
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